Russian-American cooperation ensures continuous and relatively safe space exploration, US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) head Jared Isaacman said.

"We could bring our astronauts home early, knowing that the relationship we’ve constructed with our partners in Russia enables continuous operations of the space station in a relatively safe way. So I think that the design of the International Space Station really had a chance through its international partners; it had a chance to really showcase itself over the last month or so," he said, responding to reporters’ questions after the launch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft with the Crew-12 mission, which includes Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyayev.

Isaacman added that in the coming years, Russia and the US will have many opportunities for cooperation in space. "We're making preparations for a discussion with my counterpart (Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Bakanov - TASS) at the earliest opportunity. As you know, the ISS is going to still be up there for a long time. There is a lot that we need to accomplish together [with Russia] in the years ahead. There are certainly a lot of opportunities for good conversation," he said.

On February 13 at 1:15 p.m. Moscow time (10:15 a.m. GMT), the US company SpaceX launched the Crew Dragon manned spacecraft from Cape Canaveral in Florida using a Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The Crew-12 mission, consisting of Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyayev, NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, and European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, headed to the International Space Station.