Russia is hoping that the U.S. will keep on flying the space shuttle past the 2011 retirement date.
Currently, NASA is planning only six more missions of the space shuttle. Construction of the International Space Station (ISS) will be completed by then.
The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, said that he would prefer to see further space shuttle missions to the ISS. Like some members in Congress who are trying to extend the shuttles retirement past the 2011 date, Roscosmos chief, Anatoly Perminov gave his views in a recent interview with the RIZ news agency and Interfax.
NASA’s new chief and former astronaut Charles Bolden will be visiting the Russian Baikonur cosmodrome on September 30th, for his first foreign trip as the head of NASA.
NASA’s current plans are to retire teh shuttle in 2011 and hire out seats on other countries (read Russian Soyuz) spacecraft and or on private venture projects like SpaceX proposed Dragon; until the new Orion system comes online.
And for those who do not know. United States, Russian, and China, are the only countries that have human orbital space flight capability right now.
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REF. Reuters.com. “Russia hopes U.S. to Extend shuttle operations.” Conor Sweeney; editing by Philippa Fletcher, September 25, 2009. (http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE58O24L20090925)
