NEW YORK, August 25. /TASS/. NASA plans to begin negotiations with Roscosmos to include Boeing Starliner in the cross flight program this autumn, says Joel Montalbano, NASA’s International Space Station Program Manager.

"My plan is to start working on that this fall," he said during a press conference livestreamed on NASA’s website Thursday. "And so, as you know, we signed the integrated crew agreement which is one flight per year in [2022. 2023 and 2023."

He stated that, once the program progresses past the first launches, NASA plans to "fold into Boeing and make it a long term agreement."

"The goal is a long term agreement; every time we fly we have a cosmonaut on either SpaceX or Boeing and then an astronaut on the Soyuz spacecraft," Montalbano said.

According to the official, it would not be necessary to sign a new agreement, as it would be enough to amend the existing one to include Boeing spacecraft.

Earlier, Montalbano said that NASA is considering prolonging the cross flight agreement after it expires in 2024.

On July 15, Roscosomos announced an agreement signed on joint cross flights for Russian cosmonauts and US astronauts to the ISS. According to Russian cosmonaut team commander Oleg Kononenko, the signed agreement covers three missions for Russian cosmonauts aboard US-made Crew Dragon spacecraft.