Russia and the United States will continue cross-flights of spacecraft for another two years to deliver cosmonauts and astronauts to the ISS. This was announced in an interview with TASS by Maxim Kharlamov, head of the Gagarin Research and Test Cosmonaut Training Center (TsPK im. Yu.A. Gagarina, part of Roscosmos).
According to him, the management of Roscosmos and NASA signed additions to the agreement on cross-flights, and three more flights are to be carried out under this agreement in 2025–2026. However, the final list of those who will fly on Crew Dragon and Soyuz is not yet known.
I can't say for sure yet, because there are no approved crews. We have another stage of preparation for the flight on Dragon currently being undertaken by Kirill Peskov. And in the future, Oleg Platonov or Oleg Artemyev, for example, may be assigned.
Kirill Peskov was scheduled to go to the ISS in February 2025 with NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nicole Ayers and JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi. However, the launch of Crew Dragon with the Crew-10 crew has been postponed until the end of March 2025. This is Peskov's first flight.
Kharlamov noted that if the cross-flight program continues, Russian cosmonauts may also fly on the Boeing Starliner.
So far, cosmonauts are flying on Crew Dragon, but, of course, in the future, if the Boeing tests are successful, they will also fly on them. One flight of their ship is planned for 2026, but since this flight will be of a test nature, it does not involve the participation of a Russian cosmonaut. And in the future, if this ship receives a safety certificate, we will consider the issue of flights of our cosmonauts on it, if the cross-flight program continues.
Boeing Starliner, a spacecraft from aircraft manufacturer Boeing, created under contract with NASA, arrived at the ISS in early June 2024 with NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams on board. This was its first flight, and malfunctions were detected in the spacecraft on the way to the ISS. Later it turned out that problems in the maneuvering engine and helium leaks in the service module would not allow the crew members to get home alive. Wilmore and Williams are scheduled to return home as part of the Crew-9 crew, whose return has also been postponed to March 2025.
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