ISS Represents Perfect Platform For Russia, US To Boost Relations - Space Foundation

The International Space Station (ISS) is an ideal platform for the United States and Russia to develop better relations, Space Foundation CEO Tom Zelibor told Sputnik

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th April, 2021) The International Space Station (ISS) is an ideal platform for the United States and Russia to develop better relations, Space Foundation CEO Tom Zelibor told Sputnik.

"That orbiting outpost would not have happened without either the Russian or the American people, and it is the perfect platform for us to develop better relationships with one another," Zelibor said. "The truth is, the ISS was brought about by more than engineering and joint assembly spacewalks. It's an example of respect, human ingenuity and capacity building and those are the best foundations for any relationship to be built upon."

Zelibor said that is one of the reasons the Space Foundation selected the five Primary partners of the ISS - the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia and the European Space Agency (ESA) with its Space Achievement Award this past year.

The Space Agency chief said space remains one the very few areas where the two countries continue to cooperate amid their worsened relations.

"Cost is certainly a driver as efforts like the ISS, or even trips to the Moon or Mars are not inexpensive ventures," he said. "Ultimately, it's about our mutual survival. Space is certainly one of the most hostile of environments any human can venture and, as such, our own human instincts to protect ourselves and one another come forward.

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Zelibor pointed out that ever since Russian and US astronauts started to train together onboard the Space Shuttle and the Mir Space Station in the 1990s, political and cultural barriers broke down between the crew members but also the support teams around them.

"That's a relationship that was pioneered in the 1970's by the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project that not only linked our international spacecraft in orbit but joined us in handshakes in space for the first time too," Zelibor said.

Zelibor said he believes that one of the most impressive relationships and lifelong friendships born of that exchange was between astronauts Tom Stafford and Alexei Leonov� - "two of the Space Races most notable space pioneers."

"Their friendship was the first of many mutual bonds of respect and comradery to be formed and many more have followed their examples," he said. "You hear about that shared mutual bond if you speak with any of the ISS crew members and their support teams, or even those from the Shuttle-Mir era. All of them will tell you how grateful they are for friendships that were forged by working, designing, building and training together."

The Space Foundation, located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is one of the world's leading organizations in space awareness activities and major industry events.