On Tuesday, July 26, Russia made the announcement that it would leave the International Space Station (ISS) in 2024. Putin was informed by the recently recruited head of Moscow’s space agency, that Russia would be leaving the International Space Station. He also announced the new station’s intentions, as reported by news organisations.
Midway through July, Yury Borisov, the newly appointed head of Roscosmos, remarked ‘As you are aware, we work together internationally on the International Space Station. We will without a doubt fulfil all of our responsibilities to our partners.’
Added he, ‘However, the choice has already been made to leave the station after 2024. By then, I predict, a Russian orbital station will begin to take shape.’
Putin said, ‘Good,’ and the Kremlin then released his statement.
The United States hasn’t gotten ‘any official word’ from Russia, according to a senior NASA official. ‘We haven’t heard any official word from the partner as to the news today,’ said Robyn Gatens, the director of the ISS for NASA, at a press briefing.
Gatens answered ‘absolutely not’ when asked if she wanted the US-Russia space partnership to stop.
For those who are unaware, the ISS will be shut down after 2024. But according to NASA, it can continue to run until 2030.
When the ISS was launched in 1998, it seemed to be a ground-breaking decision, and it was believed that it would be a stepping stone in US-Russia cooperation after their Space Race conflict during the Cold War.
However, Russia’s most recent action indicates otherwise. The declaration was made when tensions between the West and Russia over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine were rising.
Multiple economic sanctions were put in place by the West in an effort to isolate Russia, but until recently, space exploration was one of the only fields in which collaboration between Moscow and Washington and its allies remained intact.
According to some space specialists, the nation’s space sector would be significantly impacted by the astronauts’ departure from the ISS, as reported by the news agency AFP. Additionally, it will deal a devastating setback to the programme of manned flights.
Russia’s own space station?
Borisov suggested that Russia ‘will start to form a Russian orbital station’. But an independent space analyst Vitaly Yegorov said it was next to impossible to build a new orbiting station from scratch in a few years, especially in the current circumstances.
Yegorov told AFP that ‘there won’t be a Russian orbital station in 2024, 2025, or 2026.’
A full-fledged space station would require at least ten years of ‘the most generous finance,’ he continued.
Yegorov stated that Moscow may have to postpone its programme of manned flights ‘for several years’ or possibly ‘indefinitely’ as a result of Russia’s departure from the ISS.
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