MOSCOW, December 14. /TASS/. The CEO of Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, has said he has recommended NASA to equip its future Moon orbiter with a docking port compatible with Russian space vehicles just in case. This would enable Russia to extend a helping hand in emergency.
Rogozin said he had addressed NASA’s director, Jim Bridenstine, with such a proposal some time ago.
"I said: listen, you can have whatever ideas you wish, but you are obliged to make a special docking port compatible with Russian space vehicles and to do this at your own expense, because this will meet your own vital interests and the interests of your crew. This would let our spacecraft approach yours and bring your crew back, if need be," Rogozin said during a roundtable discussion at the Federation Council (upper house), devoted to US space exploration policies.
He stressed that the space realities were "too aggressive to let anyone indulge in political games there where great distances are involved."
"Should something happen to the US spacecraft Orion and its crew in the Moon’s orbit, no country but Russia and, I do hope, China, will be able to do something to help a US crew," Rogozin said.