On July 26, the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) announced that Russia will formally withdraw from the International Space Station (ISS) after 2024 and will focus on building its own outpost in orbit.
This was stated by the new head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borissov, during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, in the capital Moscow. In addition, Borisov emphasized that before leaving the project, Russia will fulfill its obligations to other partners on the ISS:
Of course, we will fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision has been made to abandon this station after 2024. I think that by this time we will begin to assemble a Russian orbital station, which will be the main priority of the national space program.
According to information from the independent Russian news agency Interfax, citing an unnamed industry source, Russia’s new space station would cost six billion dollars.
According to press reports, the decision is due to the sanctions imposed on the Kremlin after the invasion of Ukraine. Borisov’s statement reaffirmed earlier statements by Russian space officials about Moscow’s intention to abandon the space outpost after 2024.
In April, former Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin threatened to end cooperation with Western partners on the ISS, in retaliation for Western sanctions. Rogozin told Russian state television that Moscow would no longer cooperate with its international partners aboard the ISS.
Furthermore, Yuri Borissov’s predecessor warned that the sanctions could disrupt the operation of Russian ships supplying the ISS and thus affect the Russian segment of the station, one of whose roles is to keep the ISS in its orbit.
For its part, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) claimed not to have received an “official” notification of the withdrawal of the Russians from the ISS after 2024.
Until now, the Russians and the Americans had managed to preserve their agreement on the management of the station, which has become the symbol of the only cooperation still active between the two former “blocs”.
Just last July 4, the head of NASA, Bill Nelson, expressed his hope that the United States and Russia will continue to cooperate around the ISS until 2030, when the station will cease to function.
In addition, on July 16, after months of doubts, NASA and Roscosmos announced that they would continue their collaboration in space by sending two American astronauts aboard Soyuz rockets and two Russian cosmonauts aboard SpaceX rockets to the ISS. The flight is scheduled for September 21.
The space station is run jointly by the space agencies of Canada, the United States, Europe, Japan and Russia. The first piece was put into orbit in 1998 and the outpost has been inhabited for almost 22 years.
The ISS is used to conduct scientific research in zero gravity and test equipment for future space travel. It typically has a crew of seven, who spend months aboard the station as it orbits 250 miles from Earth.