Pause possible in U.S. astronauts' flights to ISS on board Soyuz

12:59, 11.03.2016 1 min read

Delays in signing a contract between NASA and Russia's Roscosmos state corporation on prolonging the existing agreement to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on board Soyuz spacecraft into 2018-2019 may cause a difficult situation for the American partners and the ISS in general, a source familiar with the situation told Interfax-AVN on Friday.

"In conditions when the private companies SpaceX and Boeing Space Exploration are unlikely to be able to develop and test new spaceships by 2018, it makes sense for Americans to prolong the existing, fifth, agreement on delivering astronauts to the ISS in 2017 into the subsequent period," the source said.

"They are already running late, bearing in mind the fact that the minimum cycle of building a Soyuz manned spaceship takes two years," he said.