"The Americans expect that they will start flying on board their own spacecraft. According to NASA, with whom we were negotiating now at Baikonur, they hope to solve their main problems - both Boeing and SpaceX - by the end of this year," Rogozin told reporters at the First All-Russian Conference on Space Education "The Road to Space".
"So the crew will fly next year. We wish them success," he said.
Last week, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told the CNN broadcaster that his company could be sending astronauts to the ISS in "three or four months." However, earlier that week, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted that while "looking forward to" SpaceX presenting a prototype for its commercial travel spacecraft Starship, he was expecting "the same level of enthusiasm" from the company on its ISS shuttle Crew Dragon.
Both Crew Dragon and Boeing CST-100 Starliner crew capsules that are expected to bring US astronauts to the ISS are behind schedule.
