USA orders two “Progress” cargo vehicles from Russia

USA orders two “Progress” cargo vehicles from Russia

US based space agency NASA has placed orders for two “Progress” cargo vehicles. They have just concluded an agreement with the Russian space agency Roskosmos.

Sources claim that there are also negotiations in progress for six manned ‘Soyuz’ and six ‘Progress’ spaceships which would be delivering crews and freight to the International Space Station (ISS).

Sevastyanov further said that the Energia organization has a lot of work to do to develop the Russian segment of the ISS. In addition, they also have to replace the American shuttles by new vehicles.

Nikolai Sevastyanov, Head and Constructor-General of the “Energia” Rocket Space Construction Corporation said: “We shall double the output of ‘Soyuz’ spacecraft and ‘Progress ‘ transport vehicles in 2009. Whereas today we are annually building two ‘Soyuz’ and four ‘Progress’ spacecraft, this number will be increased to 4 and 7 respectively.”