Russia, U.S. to sign agreement on cross-flights to ISS within 2 weeks - Rogozin

TSIOLKOVSKY. July 6 (Interfax) - Russia and the United States may sign an agreement on cross-flights to the International Space Station (ISS) within a week or two, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin told reporters during a trip to the Vostochny Cosmodrome.

"Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev is working on it. I talked with him about that on Saturday. We are expecting such a document within a week or two," Rogozin said.

There is no sense to name particular candidate astronauts before the agreement is concluded, he said.

"We won't disclose the astronaut's name or do any advertising. The candidates [for Soyuz spaceship crew] have been designated by the U.S. side, but I won't tell you. Let the U.S. side say that," Rogozin said.

Only Russian spaceships have been transporting ISS crews since 2011, and before that a cross-flight system was in effect to provide U.S. astronauts with seats on Russian spaceships and Russian cosmonauts with seats on U.S. spaceships. NASA said in 2020 it was negotiating the resumption of cross-flights with Roscosmos. There was no clarity on the agreement due to an escalation of Russian-U.S. tensions following the beginning of the Russian military operation in Ukraine.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a resolution in June to allow Roscosmos to negotiate a cross-flight agreement with NASA.

The U.S. Crew Dragon spaceship operated by Crew 5, which may include Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina, is scheduled for this fall. Roscosmos said on June 25 that Kikina was preparing to go on a weeklong training with SpaceX in the United States. If the agreement is signed, cosmonaut Andrei Fedyayev will be Kikina's backup.