Testifying yesterday at the Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that U.S.-Russian cooperation in space could be “a template for the future.” Space should be the model of cooperation between the two adversaries. According to Interfax, he stated: “There is a very professional, competent relationship between the U.S. indeed and other international partners and the Russians with regard to space. Not only between the cosmonauts and the astronauts onboard the International Space Station.… Not only that, but also the fact that there is a mission control of Americans and Russians—in Moscow, as well as Houston. And it is all working.”
TASS reported Nelson recalling the 1975 Russian-U.S. Soyuz-Apollo experimental flight, and saying: “That set the tone for the civilian space program between otherwise two enemies, two political and geopolitical enemies.” There was also cooperation aboard the Mir orbital station. “And so then we designed and built together the International Space Station…. If we can continue peacefully working together in space, maybe that’s a template for the future.”
