MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th January, 2019) The spokesman for the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos, Vladimir Ustimenko, denied reports of the corporation's immediate withdrawal from negotiations with NASA on participation in the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway project.
Earlier, a source in the space industry told Sputnik that Roscosmos might cancel talks with NASA on participation in the creation of the lunar-orbit space station due to the cancellation of the visit of Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin to the United States, where negotiations were to take place.
"No, all these assumptions about the immediate withdrawal from negotiations with NASA on participation in the creation of the lunar-orbit Gateway station or the waiver of other obligations are completely unfounded. We in Roscosmos intend to comply with all agreements and follow the signed documents, and are not yet going to act reciprocally," Ustimenko told the Kommersant newspaper.
He also told the publication that Roscosmos considered it strange that NASA communicates with the Russian state corporation through the media, rather than directly, and still awaited clarification.
Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin, who is on the US sanctions list over Ukraine, was expected to visit NASA in February, but the US space authority's spokeswoman said on Friday the trip had been postponed indefinitely.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine later said in a phone call with the Washington Post that he had rescinded the invitation under pressure from US senators. Roscosmos said it had not been informed about the cancellation.
In spring 2018, it was reported that the United States had offered Russia to manufacture only one module for the Gateway station � the airlock designed for space crews. In this case, the module itself was supposed to be manufactured according to US standards and to be designed for US spacesuits.
Rogozin earlier noted that Russia could participate in the project only on an equal footing. The prospects of the project were expected to be discussed at the Baikonur Cosmodrome during a visit of NASA head there in October 2018. However, the spacecraft launch then failed and no negotiations on the lunar-orbit station were reported. Earlier in the month, Rogozin instructed to develop a national concept of the study of the moon as an alternative to international lunar projects.
