Federico Bordonaro

Articolo di approfondimento scritto per ISN-Security Watch.

Bilateral cooperation between Western Europe and Russia began back in 1989
with an initial exchange of information, small study contracts, and some ESA
experiments on Russian missions.

In January this year, the ESA signed an agreement with Russia to enhance
cooperation over the use of facilities and information-sharing. According to
that deal, Moscow will be allowed to use the French Guyana base of Kourou to
launch future Soyuz and carrier-rockets.

Last year, Moscow decided to extend, until 2050, the lease of Kazakhstan’s
Baikonur space site, currently the only site from which Russian manned space
flights to the International Space Station can be launched.

Then, in July this year, the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin
approved a new space plan for the next decade, establishing among other things
that six volunteers would spend 500 days in a mock space module in Moscow. The
plan’s goal is also to raise funds for the construction of the Clipper.