Russia will probably not withdraw from the International Space Station ISS as soon as announced. Yuri Borisov, head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos for two weeks, said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that the decision to exit the ISS had been made: “After 2024” Russia will leave the station. But now, Reuters reports, Russian space officials have informed their US colleagues at NASA that Moscow wants to keep its cosmonauts aboard the ISS until its own orbital outpost is built and operational — and clearly it may last beyond 2024.
With his statement, which was effective in the media, Borisov apparently left a back door open, because further work until the planned crash of the ISS in 2031 would end “after 2024”. Currently, NASA’s western partners depend on Russia for its operations, especially when it comes to corrective maneuvers to keep the station in orbit. Just a month ago, NASA itself raised the orbit of the ISS for the first time with a Cygnus cargo ship from the US company Northrop Grumman.
According to the Heise news portal, there are considerable doubts about Borisov’s announcement elsewhere. He said that the first module for a Russian space station should be in use by 2025. However, it seems unrealistic that the schedule can be met given the current political situation. In response to the war of aggression against Ukraine, harsh sanctions were imposed on the country, which also hit the space industry hard. The company RKK Energija, which was commissioned to build the space station, announced directly on Tuesday that the first module could be launched in 2028 – if the decision to build it was made this year.