Although Russia and America can be fighting over the Ukraine issue, but far away from earth at the International Space Station (ISS) both Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts are still working together side by side.

The ISS is one of the rare areas of US-Russian cooperation that so far has not been affected by the Ukraine crisis.

In a new mission to the ISS, the crew includes two space veterans American Scott Kelly and Russian Mikhail Kornienko. The duo will be the first to spend a whole year straight on the cosmic outpost, rather than the usual six months.

Explaining about the life aboard the ISS after returning to earth this month, Russian cosmonaut Alexander Samokutyaev said that the crew aboard ISS performs their work and also love and respect each other.

First launched as an international project back in 1998, the station was a symbol of the cooperation that emerged from the Cold War rivalry of the space race between the Soviet Union and United states.

The research outpost may be technically divided into Russian and American sections, but none of the country can run the station on their own.

American expert John Logsdon, a member of NASA's Advisory Council, told AFP that the US and Russia need each other. He also called there relation as a marriage where divorce is almost impossible.

Since the end of its space shuttle flight, US has been dependent on Russian rockets to take astronauts and important supplies to the space station.

The American sector also supplies the power to run the whole project and the Russian cosmonauts often rely on NASA's superior communications system to talk to Earth.

Russian space expert Vadim Lukashevich, said, "Even though we are butting heads on Earth, up on the ISS we can't work without them and they can't work without us".