US-Russia cooperation forges ahead in space despite tensions on earth

NEW YORK • When SpaceX next launches a Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station (ISS), one of the astronauts aboard will be Russian.

United States space agency Nasa and its Russian counterpart Roscosmos announced on Friday that they had reached an agreement that would give Russian astronauts seats on American-built spacecraft in exchange for Nasa astronauts receiving rides into orbit on Russian Soyuz rockets.

Also on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree dismissing Mr Dmitry Rogozin, who since 2016 had led Roscosmos, the state corporation that oversees Russia's space activities.

Russians and Americans in orbit have sustained their close cooperation despite the fracturing of ties between the countries after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.

The relationship also endured Mr Rogozin's repeated belligerent pronouncements in the Russian news media and on his Twitter and Telegram accounts.

In April, Mr Rogozin demanded that economic sanctions against Russia be lifted and said that he had submitted a proposal urging the Russian government to leave the space station.

Last week, after the European Space Agency formally pulled out of a collaboration with Russia on sending a robotic rover to Mars, Mr Rogozin said Russian astronauts on the space station would stop using a robotic arm built by the Europeans.

He also lobbed disparaging words at Mr Josef Aschbacher, director-general of the European Space Agency, and Mr Josep Borrell Fontelles, a top European Union foreign policy official.

"I, in turn, give a command to our crew on the ISS to stop working with the European ERA (European Robotic Arm) manipulator," Mr Rogozin wrote on his Telegram channel. "Let Aschbacher himself and his boss Borrell fly into space and do at least something useful in their lives."

Mr Rogozin's successor will be Mr Yuri Borisov, who takes over Roscosmos after his own ousting as the deputy prime minister overseeing Russia's military industrial complex.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that the resignation had nothing to do with Mr Rogozin's performance and promised that the former director would soon be employed again.

NYTIMES