The boss of the Russian space agency (Roscosmos), Dmitri Bakanov, arrived in the United States to speak with the acting administrator of NASA, Sean Duffy, Riscosmos announced on Tuesday.
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This is the first meeting between managers of Russian and American space agencies in eight years, according to the same source.
“Dmitri Bakanov arrived in Houston at the head of a delegation of Roscosmos to speak with the management of NASA,” said Roscosmos in a statement, adding that the meeting with Sean Duffy is scheduled “the last day of July”, that is to say on Thursday.
As part of this trip, Mr. Bakanov will in particular go to the Lyndon B. Jonhnson space center in Houston and visit a Boeing factory in charge of the CST-100 Starliner construction project, according to the press release.
He will also meet the crew of the CREW-11 mission, which includes a Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov and whose takeoff to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Crew Dragon ship is scheduled for Thursday.
Dmitri Bakanov will also participate in press conferences before and after this launch, respectively on July 30 and 31, according to the NASA website.
During the meeting with Sean Duffy, Minister of American Transport appointed in early July by Donald Trump at the head of NASA, “we are going to talk about the pursuit of the Russian-American cross-flight program to the ISS, as well as the next withdrawal of the orbit of the international space station for its immersion in the sea, said Bakanov, quoted by Roscosmos.
“The project to withdraw from the orbit station has already been developed. According to expert estimates, this process will take a total of about two and a half years, “he said.
Space is one of the last areas of cooperation between Russia and the United States, whose relations are at its lowest due to the conflict in Ukraine, although the two countries have taken up a recently under the leadership of US President Donald Trump.
As part of the sanctions against Russia, which launched an offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, Western countries ended their partnership with Roscosmos, but the Russian Soyuz vessels are still one of the only ways to send crews to the ISS.
