STAR CITY /Moscow Region/, January 11. /TASS/. The third supplement to the agreement between Russia’s state-run space corporation Roscosmos and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on cross flights to the International Space Station (ISS) has been signed, head of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Maksim Kharlamov said in an interview with TASS, adding that it covers three flights scheduled for 2025-2026.
"It (the supplement - TASS) has already been signed, it covers three next flights. The program will be implemented in 2025-2026," he said.
Roscosmos Director General Yury Borisov told reporters on September 11, 2024 that Russia and the US would continue their work on the program for cross flights to the ISS after the spring of 2025. The head of NASA’s manned spaceflight directorate, Ken Bowersox, told TASS earlier that the Russian and US space agencies were working to extend their seat swap program. Russia’s cabinet of ministers greenlighted the official talks on extension in December.
In July 2022, Roscosmos and NASA signed a seat-swap agreement allowing Russian cosmonauts to fly to the ISS on US spacecraft and US astronauts to travel aboard Russian spaceships. The agreement makes sure that there always is at least one Russian cosmonaut and one NASA astronaut aboard the ISS to serve its Russian and US segments. News came in December 2023 that Roscosmos and NASA planned to continue cross flights until 2025 inclusive.