NEW YORK, August 9. /TASS/. The United States did not invite diplomats of the Russian Consulate General in Houston to the launch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the ISS with Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov on board, Russian Consul General in Houston Alexander Zakharov told TASS.
"Now we do not even receive notifications about the launches from NASA. There is no such thing," he said.
"We work closely with the Russian mission control team, which is here on a rotating basis, and we provide the necessary consular assistance," Zakharov added, "I would like to see much more cooperation with NASA, the Johnson Space Center."
Borisov will be part of the SpaceX Crew-7 Mission to the ISS under the cross-flight program. The start of the mssion is scheduled for August 25. Other crew members include NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen of Denmark, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa. In the first half of 2024, Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin is expected to fly to the ISS on the Crew-8 mission.
On July 15, 2022, Russian state aerospace corporation Roscosmos reported the signing of an agreement on cross flights of Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts to the ISS, which provides for three flights of Russian crew members on American spacecraft. Later, the program was extended by one more mission.
Now, the Russian segment on the ISS is represented by Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin (TASS special correspondent on the ISS), who have been joined by United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi.