Half a century after the US and the USSR raced to the Moon, a Russian cosmonaut might make it to the moon on American hardware. She might find herself looking down at the lunar surface a few hundred miles below through the window of NASA's Orion spacecraft. Such an unexpected development could result from recent negotiations between NASA officials and their partners in the International Space Station.

During the past couple of years, American, Russian, European, Japanese, and Canadian officials quietly discussed a possible joint human space flight program after the retirement of the ISS. Although these five space agencies might not be on the same page as far as whether to go to the moon first or head straight to Mars, they're getting closer to an agreement that a human outpost in lunar orbit would be the necessary first step either way.

During the latest round of negotiations in Houston last month, the ISS partners narrowed down the list of potential modules that would comprise their periodically visited habitat. According to the provisional plan, four key pieces made the cut for the first phase of the assembly, which is penciled in to take place from 2023 to 2028 in lunar orbit: The spartan outpost will include the U.S.-European space tug, a Canadian robot arm, a pair of habitation modules from Europe and Japan, and an airlock module from Russia. This hardware would hitchhike on NASA's giant SLS rocket, along with the Orion crew vehicle at the top of each booster.

It was a long tradition for NASA to reward its partners contributing space hardware to the US with the inclusion of guest astronauts from donor countries. In 1983, German astronaut Ulf Merbold became the first foreigner taking a ride on the Space Shuttle Columbia, which carried the European-built Spacelab module. Astronauts from many other countries have followed.

It is widely expected that foreign astronauts will be invited to join four-seat Orion missions, commensurate with their countries' contribution into the program. No doubt Europeans will be at the top of the list as a thank you for providing the crucial service module for the Orion spacecraft. A Japanese astronaut will probably accompany the habitation module now being mulled by Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA. By the same token, a Russian cosmonaut could get a seat on the Orion mission carrying the proposed Russian-built Airlock Module to join the international facility around 2025. The crew of the near-lunar outpost will use the two-room Russian module to get outside for assembly, repair, and scientific work.

According to the timeline discussed by the ISS partners, Russia's own next-generation transport spacecraft, known as Federatsiya (Federation), was also provisioned to carry crews to the near-lunar outpost. But by its developers' own admission, the Federatsiya will not have a rocket powerful enough to send it toward the Moon until at least 2027. At the same time, Russians ruled out the veteran Soyuz as a vehicle for lunar missions, despite its roots in the moon race.

As a result, the best bet for Russian cosmonauts to sail beyond the Earth's orbit will be the Orion—provided Russia and America can continue to play nice in space even as their government's can't get along on Earth.

Anatoly Zak is the publisher of RussianSpaceWeb.com and the author of Russia in Space, the Past Explained, the Future Explored

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io