NEW YORK, Oct 5, 2024 (BSS/TASS) - NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson described her flight with Russian cosmonauts aboard the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft as "a privilege and a pleasure."

"It has been an honor to represent NASA, living and working aboard our magnificent International Space Station for the past six months," she said at a NASA news conference in Houston. "It's also been a privilege and a pleasure to have flown, not once but twice, with our Russian partners aboard their historical Soyuz rocket and their spacecraft, as well as participating in all of their deep traditions through training as well as launch and landing."

Dyson flew to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft in March under Russia-US seat swap agreement. She spent slightly less than six months on the orbit and returned to the earth with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko (who was TASS special correspondent on the ISS) and Nikolay Chub in late September.

In July 2022, Roscosmos and NASA signed a seat-swap agreement allowing Russian cosmonauts to fly to the ISS on US spacecraft and US astronauts to travel aboard Russian spaceships. The agreement makes sure that there always is at least one Russian cosmonaut and one NASA astronaut aboard the ISS to serve its Russian and US segments. News came in December 2023 that Roscosmos and NASA planned to continue cross-flights until 2025 inclusive. The head of NASA's manned spaceflight directorate, Ken Bowersox, told TASS that the Russian and US space agencies are working to extend their seat swap program.