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The USA & Russia in Space Together?

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The meeting on August 4th 2025 in the USA of Dmitry Bakanov, the chief of Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency and Sean Duffy, the acting Administrator of NASA, America’s space agency, is far more than symbolic. It emphasises that Science and Space can and should be above the wrangling between the 2 nations about the Ukraine War even though that has become very tense lately. The need for co-operation in Space is essential for many reasons including cost effectiveness and the sharing of technological and medical information, only one of which is ensuring survival should a mishap occur since in Space, such issues are life and death ones in a very short time frame. The chief of Roscosmos also met the Russian Cosmonaut, Oleg Platonov who was set to travel to the ISS (International Space Station) aboard one of Elon Musk’s Space X spacecraft. So despite the hardening of relations between America and Russia, a Russian Cosmonaut is going to the ISS via an American spacecraft launching in the USA.`This is the first meeting since 2018 when the then head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin met NASA’s chief Jim Bridenstine at Baikonur in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet Republic. The issues under discussion included the planned demise of the ISS which was set for 2028 according to Russia and 2030 according to the USA. It appears that they will agree to an extension until 2030 and maybe even extend it further to 2032. The Russians and Americans have also agreed that the issues of deep space missions and the possible future Russian orbital Space Station will require collaboration, as well as the possible replacement for the ISS, an ISS2 as it has been called. It was purposely timed to coincide with the historic ‘handshake in space’ between Apollo, the USA spacecraft and the Soyuz, the Russian spacecraft in 1975 while in orbit above the Earth. We published on Co-Operation in Space on June 1st 2021 at Space Cooperation, Where Are We?

There is of course a distinct possibility that the thaw in relations between Russian and American space agencies is also part of a definite geopolitical play to attempt to gather the Russians into the American camp as opposed to the Chinese one. Russia and China have collaborated on several projects though the Chinese have definitely followed their own path employing methods and technology that they have developed by themselves, whether or not it was reverse engineered from existing technology in the first place. Competition in space is a very real issue given the possible access to an immensity of resources on asteroids let alone planets as well as the advances in technology giving an edge in the race to acquire them. So far, ostensibly space has not been militarized (though the truth is probably that to a degree it has been) and co-operation between the space faring nations is the best way to sidestep this issue becoming a serious problem given the constant competition between nations on Earth.

It is probably time for Russia, like China, to build and place its own Space Station in orbit so that as the Russian President Vladimir Putin said, sovereignty is maintained. Since collaborating on projects is laudable in every way, it must be continued but since sovereignty on Earth predicates the ability to explore and follow different methods and issues, it is a must that Russia has its own Space Station so that independent research can be done. Humans are notorious for keeping scientific advances secret so as to be able to profit and gain ground over other nations in the ever ongoing competition between them. There is the possibility that Russia will in some form collaborate with Elon Musk and his Space X team who are heading for Mars as it was reported that Vladimir Popovkin, a Russian space Administrator, secretly met with Musk years ago. It is also possible that the present head of Roscosmos Dmitry Bakanov will meet with Elon Musk but whether that will be made public is yet to be seen. Given that Russia like China is a BRICs member and that other countries in the Brics group like India whose space agency is ISRO and have successfully been to the Moon, Mars and are full committed to ongoing space exploration, they too should be included. Nigeria and South Africa have space programs which at present though minor in comparison to the established participants, have launched satellites into orbit, and the collaboration could be extended to include other nations. This could include presumed rogue states like North Korea who are quite close to placing people in space as inclusion would definitely move them from a state of perpetual confrontation to one of co-operation, thereby dimming any prospect of disagreements turning into direct war. The added inclusion of smaller nations in various projects would allow them to overcome their lack of finances and technology to participate and explore all the options that space exploration offers. The obvious candidate not so far mentioned is the EU through its space agency ESA but they seem somewhat hesitant to join the party as they have limited their tried and tested launch system Arianne by excluding humans bound for space.

Space is for everyone and humanity’s future is inextricably tied to its ongoing exploration and eventual exploitation in whatever form that eventually takes. It is wonderful to see more co-operations in space as this will further cement the bonds between nations and ease the existing tensions and those that may arise in the future.