After the US bought a seat on a Russian spacecraft to send a NASA astronaut to the International Space Station, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin claimed that US spaceflight was still ‘unstable’.
From 2011 until last year, the US relied on the Russian Soyuz launch system to bring their astronauts to the ISS, with America not having its own capabilities. In May 2020, Crew Dragon, a reusable spacecraft manufactured by Elon Musk’s private company SpaceX, took two Americans to space for the first time with an American-made vehicle in nine years.
Despite this progress, however, it appears that NASA will still need help from Moscow.
Late in 2020, Roscosmos unveiled by Roscosmos. The Americans asked for a place for astronaut Mark Vande Hei on Soyuz MS-18, because they would be going to the ISS on April 9th. According to a press release, the request was made very late and interrupted. the Russian flight program, but the company accepts it as a way to “Reaffirms its commitment to joint agreements and the spirit of joint use of the International Space Station.”
“The tradition of international crewing, which has existed for more than twenty years, will be continued,” reads the statement.
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Prior to 2011, there was an agreement between Russia and the US to share seats on each other’s spacecraft. Last year, NASA reported that they would negotiate with Roscosmos to bring back this crossover system. According to Rogozin, however, this latest agreement is not an exchange.
“Flights to the ISS are unstable,” Rogozin wrote on Facebook. ‘There was an urgent need for them to seek insurance and send their man on our ship to make sure their segment on the space station is not left unattended. The talk of a change of seats has nothing to do with this, “he said. he explained, noting that the deal was made with Axiom Space, a NASA contractor and private space company that plans to eventually sell human space experiences to tourists visiting the ISS.
‘It’s convenient for them, and we do not care. We will invest the proceeds in new developments. ”
In 2014, when he was serving as Deputy Prime Minister, Rogozin famously joked that the US should use a trampoline to send their astronauts into space after sanctions aimed at the Russian space industry. In 2020, following the success of SpaceX, Musk said: “The trampoline works!”
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Musk, however, did not have to have the last laugh. Following the latest US request for a seat, Rogozin wrote on Facebook: “Apparently the trampoline works the same way.”
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