NASA and Russia have concluded that they will continue to launch American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts on each other’s space vehicles until 2025, according to a report. Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency recently announced that it looks forward to continue collaborating with NASA on the International Space Station launches to 2025.
Roscosmos hopes “to maintain the reliability of the ISS as a whole,” according to multiple reports including the Moscow Times. The primary goal of this collaboration is to enable independent launch access for both nations and also to provide backup means if challenging situations eventually occur.
Space.com reveals that it has communicated with NASA officials for comment as regards the recent announcement made by the Roscosmos. Currently, the two spacecraft that carry astronauts to space are the SpaceX Dragon for NASA missions and Soyuz for Russia. Boeing Starliner is also preparing the fleets of spacecraft carrying humans to the ISS. However, it is not yet ready for operation. But once it is ready, it will be helpful to the U.S. missions to the ISS.
The future of the International Space Station based on NASA and Russia Operations
The ISS is expected to last until 2030 before its deorbiting schedules will be initiated. The International bodies operating the orbiting laboratory have agreed on deorbiting the ISS to point Nemo in the 2030s.
Russia reveals that it will continue to contribute to the operation of the ISS until 2028 based on recent reports. The country is also working on establishing its own space stations and other technologies in the future.
NASA and Russia are the major operators of the ISS. The European Space Agency, Japan, and Canada still contribute to the operation and maintenance of the orbiting laboratory in space. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in Feb 2022 affected most space partnerships with the former soviet nation. However, the partnership in operating the ISS was not affected because of space policy reasons.
Currently, Russia and NASA handle the operation of different segments of the International Space Station. They both take care of different operational responsibilities. Russia and NASA also transport cargo ships for resupply missions to the crew.
While Russia maintained its partnership with NASA and other countries in operating the ISS, the country has been collaborating with China to launch a moon-facing alliance since 2022. NASA is also working on its moon mission goals with a coalition of more than 30 nations signed under the Artemis Accords. These countries promised peaceful space exploration activities both now and in the future.
NASA hopes to land astronauts on the moon in 2025 under its Artemis 3 space mission. The American space agency successfully launched the Artemis 1 mission in 2022 and currently looking forward to launching the Artemis 2 mission later this year. The outcome of these missions will determine when we will establish a permanent human presence on the moon.
