The contract between the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Russia's space agency Roscosmos on launching US astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) is currently at the disposal of the Russian side for technical restructuring, the Russian agency's press service said Friday.

Late last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on dissolving the country's Federal Space Agency (FSA) in line with the creation of Roscosmos state corporation.

"After the dissolution of the Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos gained all the rights related to contracts and agreements once concluded by the FSA, including those with foreign organizations.

"Thus, the contract concluded between FSA and NASA for the delivery of astronauts on the ISS is automatically transferred to the state corporation Roscosmos and is on technical restructuring at the moment," the press-service said in a statement.

In 2013, NASA signed a modification to its decades-long contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency for full NASA crew transportation services to the ISS. Last year, NASA extended the nearly half-billion dollar contract with Russia to fly astronauts to the ISS as US Congress failed to extend funding of state spacecraft development.

Source: Sputnik News