Russia, US Agree To Continue Joint ISS Flights Until 2025 Despite Political Tensions

Russia and NASA have agreed to extend their collaboration in delivering crews to the International Space Station (ISS) until at least 2025, as confirmed by Russian space corporation Roscosmos on Thursday. Despite geopolitical tensions arising from Russia’s military actions in Ukraine, both nations have decided to continue cross-flights, involving crews of different nationalities on a single spacecraft. The joint decision is aimed at ensuring the overall reliability of the ISS.

The press release from Roscosmos highlighted the agreement to uphold cross-flights until 2025, emphasizing the commitment to maintain a presence of at least one representative from Roscosmos on the Russian segment and one representative from NASA on the American segment of the ISS. This cooperative effort underscores the shared interest in sustaining the functionality and success of the ISS, a collaborative project initiated in 1998 during a period of increased US-Russia cooperation following the Cold War’s Space Race.

While the current ISS partners, including the United States, Russia, Europe, Canada, and Japan, have officially committed to operating the space station until 2024, there is expressed interest from US officials to extend operations until 2030. In April, Russia announced its intention to utilize the ISS until 2028, marking a shift from a prior decision to withdraw from the orbiting laboratory after 2024.