NASA has relied on Russia since retirement of the space shuttle in 2011 ended U.S.-controlled access to the space station. Congress and President Donald Trump’s administration have touted the commercial program’s importance to ending that reliance, especially as diplomatic relations between the nations have deteriorated.
A Soyuz flight planned for April 2019 “will complete the fulfillment of our obligations under a contract with NASA related to the delivery of U.S. astronauts to the ISS and their return from the station,” Borisov said at the Energia Rocket and Space Corp., reported by TASS, Russia’s official news agency.
In September 2014, NASA awarded Boeing and Elon Musk’s SpaceX a combined $6.8 billion to revive the U.S.’s ability to fly to the station. SpaceX plans to fly Demo-2, its first test flight with a crew, in April 2019, and Boeing’s Crew Test Flight is now slated for mid-2019, according to a new schedule that NASA released Aug. 2.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/09/01/world/science-health-world/russia-stop-flying-u-s-astronauts-international-space-station-april-increasing-pressure-nasa/
