MOSCOW, June 4 (RIA Novosti) - Experts from the US space agency NASA are due to arrive in Moscow in June to take part in a number of scientific panel discussions on manned moon missions, according to a director of the Russian research institute that is to host the meetings.
“A group of experts will come to the Moscow State University later in June on NASA's initiative. Our task is to bring our positions closer to each other, since our joint projects, including lunar ones, won’t work otherwise,” said Mikhail Panasyuk, who heads MSU Nuclear Physics Institute.
NASA earlier said it had to freeze cooperation with Russian space researchers following Washington’s sanctions against Russia over Ukraine, prompting Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin to suggest Americans would now have to “get their astronauts to the ISS [International Space Station] using a trampoline."
Later, Rogozin announced Moscow was not planning to use the International Space Station after 2020 and would instead re-focus its funding on more promising new space projects. In response, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden vowed the US and Russia would continue to cooperate on space missions and keep each other informed.
