For nearly a decade the United States depended on Russia to launch NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) after the agency retired its Space Shuttle fleet in 2011. The U.S. reemerged as a space power with human spaceflight capabilities in 2020 when SpaceX launched NASA astronauts from American soil for the first time. To date, SpaceX has performed four crewed missions to space, three for NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The company has demonstrated it can safely transport astronauts and cargo to and from the orbiting laboratory.

SpaceX’s greatest competitor, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, is now considering purchasing rides aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft for cosmonauts to travel to ISS. According to Russian news reports, the Head of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin said at the 72nd International Astronautical Congress that SpaceX has gained enough experience for Russian cosmonauts to fly safely atop Falcon 9. “In our view, SpaceX has already acquired enough experience for us to be able to put our cosmonauts on the Crew Dragon. I think we’ll discuss this … in greater detail when we have a meeting tomorrow [October 26] with my colleague from NASA," Rogozin said on Monday, October 25.

Roscosmos is considering ‘cross flights’ to have NASA astronauts continue flying aboard Russia's Soyuz, and Russia could start to support American-made spacecraft by launching aboard SpaceX vehicles. “I believe we will be in a position to discuss Russian cosmonaut candidates who may be flying to the Space Station onboard the Crew Dragon and American astronauts who will be flying to the space station onboard Russian [Soyuz] spacecraft," Rogozin said at the conference in Russian language (a translator shared in English).

"I believe we will be in a position to discuss Russian cosmonaut candidates who may be flying to the space station onboard the Crew Dragon and American astronauts who will be flying to the space station onboard Russian spacecraft," said @DRogozin said, via a translator.

— Irene Klotz (@Free_Space) October 25, 2021

Featured Image Source: SpaceX