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Russia and US Agree to Maintain Space Station Partnership Amid Tensions
1 Aug
Summary
- Russia's space chief visits US to discuss continued cooperation on ISS
- Plans for broader space cooperation, including Artemis, have fallen apart
- Russia increasingly relying on China for space projects due to sanctions
On August 1, 2025, Dmitry Bakanov, the director of Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos, met with NASA's acting administrator, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, in the United States. This was the first face-to-face meeting between the two space agencies in over seven years.
During the discussions, Bakanov and Duffy addressed plans for continued cooperation on the International Space Station (ISS) and joint lunar exploration programs. Despite the geopolitical tensions between Russia and the West following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the two countries have maintained their partnership on the ISS, with U.S. and Russian crews continuing to fly to the orbiting outpost on each other's spacecraft.
Bakanov and Duffy agreed to keep working on keeping the space station operational until the end of the decade. However, plans for broader cooperation, including possible Russian involvement in NASA's Artemis program of lunar research, have fallen apart. As Russia has become increasingly reliant on China for its energy exports and imports of key technology amid Western sanctions, Roscosmos has started cooperation with China on its prospective lunar mission.
Both Bakanov and Duffy stated that they will report the results of the meeting to their respective presidents, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, to secure their blessing for potential future space cooperation between Russia and the United States.
