 The consideration of Soyuz as a lifeboat began in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union.Russia proposed using the Soyuz as a life boat for what was still Space Station Freedom in late 1991, leading to further analysis of this concept in the early 1990s.One of the milestones was in 1992, when after three months of negotiations the heads of the two Space Agencies agreed to study applications of the Soyuz spacecraft.