WASHINGTON, February 15. /TASS/. The cooperation between Russian and US crew members of the International Space Station (ISS) is developing in a positive way, with both sides receiving valuable scientific information, Associate Administrator for NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate Kenneth Bowersox said.
Speaking about efforts to fix technical problems at the orbital outpost, including in its Russian segment, Bowersox said: "We are working very well with our Russian colleagues on these issues. They are sharing information with us. We're sharing expertise with them with the goal of addressing these issues and trying to make sure that that we reduce the chance of things happening in the future."
"We're also getting valuable data. You know, some of the things we're seeing as the Russian segment ages. Its modules are older than a lot of the other modules that are on station. We're learning about how spacecraft age in space, so we're all getting valuable data there," he said during a US House Science, Space, and Technology subcommittee hearing.
"And then something that we've learned with the recent problems with the Progress and Soyuz vehicles and the radiator that leaked is that we think the orbital debris environment is something that's a big issue for all of us, including our Russian colleagues. So we're, we're trying to understand that better," the US space official added.
Speaking about Russia’s future participation in the ISS project, Bowersox said the US side "got commitment from our Russian partners to go through 2028," while "the rest of the ISS partners are working towards 2030 as the last date for full utilization."
After that, the process to deorbit the ISS will begin.
"We expect that our Russian partners will work to see what they can do after 2028. They have some technical concerns. They also have some budget concerns," the NASA official said.
"A lot of the reason that they haven't extended past 2028 is just the way their budget system works. And we have a really good technical relationship with our Russian partners. And we're looking forward to hearing from them that they're ready to stay with us through 2030. That's very important," he added.
Roscosmos CEO Yury Borisov said in November 2023 that the International Space Station (ISS) will stay in service as long as it can. On April 12 this year, Borisov reported to President Vladimir Putin that the Russian government had extended the ISS operation until 2028.
The ISS has been in orbit since November 20, 1998. It is multi-modular and has a mass of about 435 tons. With docked spacecraft the mass can reach 470 tons. The participants in this project are Russia, Canada, the United States, Japan and ten member states of the European Space Agency (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland).