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NASA discussing cross flights with Russia to space station

"Our target is still for Crew 5 in fall of 2022 to have a cosmonaut on their vehicle and then, the agreement would be to swap vehicles," head of the US ISS program Joel Montalbano pointed out

NEW YORK, October 6. /TASS/. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) expects that a Russian cosmonaut will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the fifth crew of the American manned spacecraft Crew Dragon in the fall of 2022, the head of the US ISS program, Joel Montalbano said on Thursday at a press conference.

"Last week I was in Moscow, talking with my Roscosmos colleagues, trying to move that agreement forward. We've made some small updates as we look at that agreement and get it ready for Roscosmos to submit it to their ministry. So, our target is still for Crew 5 in fall of 2022 to have a cosmonaut on their vehicle and then, the agreement would be to swap vehicles. So, at no cost we'd have an American on Souz in the same time frame," Montalbano noted.

Earlier, amidst the reports of possibly reaching an agreement between NASA and Roscosmos on cross flights, the head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin said that he did not see a need for them yet, but did not rule out discussing the issue with American partners.