NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Igor Komarov, head of Russia’s national space organization Roscosmos, have discussed further cooperation on space activities between the U.S. and Russia, Space News reported Monday.

Jeff Foust writes Bolden and Komarov said at a press conference on Saturday crew exchanges between the two countries will start once NASA launches commercial crew vehicles to provide transportation to the International Space Station.

“I believe that it is very important for all participants of the program to have alternative transportation means to the station,” Komarov said.

Komarov added Russian cosmonauts will fly on U.S. commercial vehicles while some NASA astronauts will continue to use Russian Soyuz spacecraft, Foust reported.

Bolden noted the two countries have yet to work out details on crew exchanges, the report stated.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program aims to develop a commercial crew space transportation platform that could end U.S. reliance on Soyuz vehicles.

Subject-matter experts at NASA‘s Kennedy Space Center in Florida have provided technical support to SeaDek Marine Products and GeNO as part of the agency’s Regional Economic Development program that seeks to increase partnership between the center and local businesses.

NASA said Tuesday KSC’s Cryogenics Test Laboratory provided test equipment as well as test and evaluation procedures to help SeaDek address material limitation for the closed-cell EVA foam that is used for the company’s padded deck protectors.

Biopharmaceutical company GeNO worked with NASA’s mechanical engineers through the RED Program to correct a malfunctioning reaction vessel, NASA added.

“This effort is about connecting our regional industry with NASA’s technology, capabilities and resources, with the goal of solving technology challenges together and driving economic successes for the region,” said Elizabeth Huy, senior manager of business development at the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast.

“The subject-matter experts assisted us in a search for an answer that would have taken us an additional two years to find on our own,” said Ryan Denton, an engineer at GeNO.

KSC and EDC jointly launched a regional economic development pilot program dubbed Technology Docking in January 2015 to facilitate collaborations between the center and companies in the region.

The RED program works to match small companies with subject-matter experts at Kennedy to provide advice, address problems and introduce money-saving methods.

Robert Ashley, project lead for Kennedy Space Center’s RED Program, said NASA seeks to establish an umbrella Space Act Agreement with EDC to further support small companies.

Sixty-nine companies have engaged in initial discussions with NASA experts under the RED program over the past two years and 14 of those companies received additional assistance from the agency through the Technology Docking program.

A new government audit says the Federal Aviation Administration has received an estimated $7.4 billion for activities to implement a program designed to transform current radar-based air transportation systems into one product that will utilize automated aircraft position reporting, digital communications and satellite navigation.

FAA has received funds for the Next Generation Air Transportation System program from fiscal years 2004 through FY 2016 as well as other air traffic control modernization programs, the Government Accountability Office said Thursday.

GAO noted FAA officials have also identified six NextGen activities previously slated for completion in 2025 which have been deferred until beyond 2030 because of a change in operational needs or infeasibility of the activity.

The auditor added FAA’s 2016 business case estimate projected costs of NextGen activities to reach $20.6 billion with $15.1 billion as the current projection of costs for the aviation industry.

Congress has asked GAO to examine FAA’s cost estimates, expenditures and time frames for NextGen completion and the report worked to discover how much the aviation agency has invested in the program since FY 2004 and when projects will be accomplished.