Russia wants to continue flights with the USA to the ISS until 2027

Flights into space

Russia wants to continue flights with the USA to the ISS until 2027

Updated on December 28, 2024Reading time: 2 min.

Cosmonauts and astronauts repeatedly fly together to the ISS from the Russian spaceport in Baikonur (Kazakhstan). (archive image) (Source: Ivan Timoshenko/Roscosmos space corporation/AP/dpa-bilder)

Despite their difficult relationship, the space nations Russia and the USA continue to cooperate in space. According to information from Moscow, another agreement is planned for 2025.

Russian and US astronauts should continue cooperation in space in the coming years, despite the serious political tensions in their countries. The Russian space agency Roscosmos announced in Moscow new joint flights to the International Space Station (ISS) by 2027.

Two flights with Russian Soyuz space capsules to the outpost of humanity and three with the US transport Crew Dragon are planned at this time, the Interfax news agency in Moscow reported, referring to information from Roscosmos. An additional agreement with NASA for joint flights will be signed next year.

This is intended to ensure the reliability of work on the ISS, Roskosmos said. In the future, the cosmonauts will stay longer on the ISS at around 400 kilometers above the Earth – instead of an average of six, then seven to nine months.

In addition, Russia is still aiming to build its own space station in space, as the space agency announced on Telegram. The ISS is considered prone to mishaps after more than a quarter of a century of operation.

Despite its costly war of aggression against Ukraine and the associated economic sanctions, Russia is also planning to spend the equivalent of around three billion euros on space travel in 2025. As was the case during the Cold War, cooperation between Russia and the USA in space travel is one of the few areas in which contacts still exist.

Next year, Russia will be offering space tourists trips to the ISS for the first time since 2021. The stay is planned for ten days. Near Moscow, wealthy customers in the Star City settlement go through months of preparation alongside cosmonauts for the three-hour flight from the Baikonur cosmodrome to the ISS. In 2021, Russia brought two Japanese space tourists to the ISS.