MOSCOW, June 7The decision to include Russian cosmonauts in the crews of the new American Boeing Starliner spacecraft can be made only after negotiations between Roscosmos and its partners on the International Space Station (ISS) and mutual coordination of the programs of Russian and American spacecraft, a source in the state corporation said.
The first manned launch of the Starliner spacecraft took place at 17.52 Moscow time on June 5. Its crew included two NASA test astronauts, Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams. At 20.34 Moscow time on June 6, the ship docked with the ISS. 
“The decision on the flight of a Russian cosmonaut on the American spacecraft Starliner will be related to the progress of testing the ship. A decision can be made after negotiations with partners on the ISS and coordination of the flight programs of the Soyuz MS, Crew Dragon and Starliner spacecraft and the program of long-term expeditions,” the interlocutor said agencies.
Starliner has been created by Boeing under a contract with NASA since 2014. Since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011, the United States has carried NASA astronauts to the ISS on Russian Soyuz spacecraft. To remove this dependence, it was decided to create manned space systems with the involvement of private companies. SpaceX and Boeing received the corresponding contracts. Built by SpaceX, Crew Dragon made its first manned flight in 2020 and has already delivered eight scheduled missions to the ISS. Commissioning of Starliner will be possible after completion of a test manned flight to the ISS and completion of its certification program for regular flights.
Starliner's first flight took place at the end of December 2019 without a crew. It was planned that it would dock with the ISS, but after separation from the rocket the ship consumed too much fuel, the docking was canceled and Starliner landed a couple of days after launch. In connection with this failure, another unmanned flight was organized. In May 2022, the ship docked at the ISS, spent five days in its composition and returned to Earth. The third flight, which became the first manned one, was postponed several times, but was eventually carried out.
The United States wants to involve Starliner in the cross-flight program, in which one seat on the Russian Soyuz MS spacecraft is occupied by a NASA astronaut, and one seat on the American spacecraft is occupied by a Russian cosmonaut. This is necessary so that in the event of any emergency and the impossibility of delivering a new crew, not a single segment of the station would be left without a professional cosmonaut capable of serving it.
The cross-flight agreement was signed by Roscosmos and NASA in July 2022. Initially, it involved flights of three Russian and three American ships. However, the program was then extended until 2025 inclusive. NASA stated that they would like the agreement to remain in effect until the end of the ISS operation (the Russian Federation extended the operation of its segment until 2028, foreign partners until 2030).
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