One of the astronauts on the International Space Station will be from Russia.
NASA and the Russian space agency agreed on Friday to give Russian astronauts seats on American-built spaceships in exchange for NASA astronauts getting rides to the International Space Station.
Russian president Vladimir V. Putin dismissed the leader of the state corporation that oversaw Russia's space activities.
Despite the break in ties between the two countries, Russians and Americans are still close. The relationship was affected by Mr. Rogozin's statements in the Russian news media.
The Russian government was urged to leave the space station by Mr. Rogozin after he demanded that economic sanctions against Russia be lifted.
After the European Space Agency pulled out of a collaboration with Russia on sending a robotic rover to Mars, Russian astronauts on the space station would stop using a robotic arm.
Mr. Rogozin said he would give a command to the crew on the International Space Station to stop working with Europe. They should fly into space and do something useful in their lives.
The Kremlin spokesman said that the move had nothing to do with the performance of the former director.
The Russian state news media quoted Mr. Peskov as saying that this was not connected with any issues. In the near future, Rogozin will start a new job.
The deputy prime minister in charge of Russia's military industrial complex will be replaced by Mr. Borisov. Mr. Borisov worked as a deputy defense minister. He isn't known for being a fireBRAND in public.
NASA officials have always insisted that operations on the space station are normal.
NASA criticized Russia last week after it was revealed that three Russian astronauts on the space station held pro-Russia flags.
NASA continued to highlight the cooperation on Friday.
NASA said there are appropriately trained crew members on the station for essential maintenance and space walks. It protects against contingencies such as a problem with any crew craft, serious crew medical issues or an emergency aboard the station that requires a crew and vehicle to return to Earth sooner than planned.
If the crew swap agreement is not in place, the Russian segment of the station would be untended at some point. It could endanger all of the station.
NASA said that the station was designed to be interdependent and depended on contributions from each space agency. There is no one agency that can function independently.
There is no exchange of money between the two agencies.
NASA pays Russia an average of $56 million a seat to take 71 astronauts to the space station. After the retirement of NASA's space shuttles in 2011, the only way NASA astronauts could go to space was with the help of a Russian spaceship. The need ended when Crew Dragon was operational.
Two NASA astronauts, Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, and Koichi Wakata of Japan, will be riding on Crew-5, the next mission to the space station, in September. Andrei Fedyaev is going to be a member of the crew of the following mission.
The astronauts will be part of the crews on upcoming launches.
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