Moscow. June 23rd. INTERFAX.RU – The head of NASA Bill Nelson said during a hearing in the Committee on Science, Space and Technology of the US House of Representatives on the approval of NASA's request for allocation of money from the budget for 2022, that he does not believe in Russia's withdrawal from joint agreements on joint work on International Space Station.
“I spoke with Rogozin three times last week. I was very worried about the comments from the Russian side about the termination of the cooperation that we have with Russia since they were the USSR,” Nelson said.
In his opinion, “the first sign ( that the agreement will not be terminated – IF ) is noticeable in President Putin's interview with NBC, exactly one day after my first conversation with Rogozin. Putin spoke enthusiastically about cooperation in space and especially about the ISS.”
“During the second conversation with Rogozin, Dmitry confirmed this. During the third, at a conference in St. Petersburg, we received additional information from this conference, which confirmed our guesses. Russia is also preparing to send an important component to the ISS in a few months. they are doing this if they are going to abandon it in a couple of years. This is pointless. We see closer cooperation with them in the future, “Nelson said when asked by a member of the House about relations with Russia and China.
On June 7, speaking at a hearing in the State Duma, the head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin said that Russia's continued participation in the ISS project after 2025 is possible only if sanctions against Russian space enterprises are lifted in the near future.
“If the sanctions against Progress and TsNIIMASH remain and are not disavowed in the near future, the issue of Russia's withdrawal from the ISS will be the responsibility of the American partners. Either we work together, and then the sanctions must be lifted immediately, or we will not work together, and then we will deploy our own station, “he said.
On June 5, Rogozin and the new head of NASA, Bill Nelson, held telephone conversations. According to Roscosmos, Nelson accepted the invitation of the head of the Russian state corporation to visit Russia and proposed to extend the operation of the ISS until 2030.
Rogozin, in turn, noted that discussion of the future fate of the ISS is possible only after the lifting of American sanctions against Roscosmos enterprises.
Earlier Rogozin reported that he and the head of NASA plan to discuss the future fate of the ISS. He noted that Russia may abandon plans to leave the ISS after 2025, if it is possible to agree with the United States on the commercial use of the Russian segment of the station.
It was reported that Russia could withdraw from the ISS project from 2025, transferring responsibility for its segment to its partners in the station. At the same time, it was noted that Russia can continue to support its segment with the financial participation of the United States.
An alternative would be the creation of a national orbital station, the first module of which is planned to be launched in 2025 and completed in 2035.
In February, the Energia rocket and space corporation reported that US and European sanctions could lead to “restriction of international cooperation in the implementation of a number of projects.”
Several Russian space enterprises, among them the Samara RCC Progress and the Central Scientific Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering (TsNIIMash), were included in the US sanctions lists. This means that now American companies will need to obtain special licenses for export, re-export or transfer of products to persons involved in the “black list”.
The head of Roscosmos called the sanctions against space enterprises – Progress RCC and TsNIIMash – illegal.
