MOSCOW. Feb 17 (Interfax) - Roscosmos and the European Space Agency (ESA) could upgrade the Soyuz launch site at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou for piloted missions, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said.
"I believe it is very important that Russia and Europe find new areas and targets of cooperation. An upgrade of the Soyuz launch site in French Guiana for piloted missions could be a project of the kind," Rogozin said on Telegram on Thursday.
"That will save billions of euros for European taxpayers and will allow Europe to rapidly join the club of space powers possessing every piloted flight competence," he said.
The ESA said earlier it was planning to design a system to transport European astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).
"If European astronauts want to be able to reach the ISS on their own, the use of the time-tested, reliable Soyuz MS piloted spaceship and the no less reliable Soyuz-2 rocket launched by European crews trained by our specialists from the French spaceport in Kourou seems like the perfect idea to me," Rogozin said.