Russia and the US add one more flight to the International Space Station

On August 25, the Russian and American space agencies agreed to add a flight to take an American astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) using Russia's Soyuz MS spacecraft.

According to Interfax news agency, this flight is part of an agreement between the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on flights to the ISS.

Under an agreement signed last year as part of the ISS crossover program, three Russian cosmonauts will fly on the US Crew Dragon spacecraft and three US cosmonauts will fly on the Russian Soyuz MS spacecraft to the ISS in 2022-2024.

The head of Russia's Human Space Exploration Program, Sergei Krikalev, said one of the American astronauts stayed (on the ISS) to carry out two missions.

The two countries have decided to add another flight. He added that this is “mutually beneficial” and that the two sides are working to “find the best option.”

The US and Russia are maintaining cooperation in space despite bilateral relations being at their lowest point in decades due to the conflict in Ukraine.

Astronauts from the two countries are working together at the ISS and together on journeys back to Earth or to the ISS.

The ISS is a science laboratory about the size of a football field and orbits 400km above Earth.

For more than two decades, the space station has operated as a joint venture between Russia and the United States, along with Canada, Japan and 11 other European countries.