Russia hesitated for a long time, now it is clear: the country will soon be withdrawing from a major international project: the International Space Station ISS.
Update from Thursday, July 28, 10:15 a.m.: Two days ago, the new head of the Roskosmos space agency, Yuri Borisov, announced that Russia wanted to withdraw from the international project “International Space Station” “after 2024” and that the decision had been made (see p. first report). However, the wording “after 2024” left some room for speculation, and what was already suspected after the announcement now seems to be confirmed: apparently Russia does not want to say goodbye to the ISS directly in 2025, but wants to remain part of the international project for a few more years.
Russian officials have informed NASA that they will continue to send cosmonauts to the ISS until Russia’s planned ROSS space station is operational, a Nasa source told the news agency Reuters. This date is expected in 2028 at the earliest. Nasa’s human spaceflight chief, Kathy Lueders, is quoted as saying Reuters saying, “There is no sign at any working level that anything has changed”. Relations with Roskosmos are “business as usual”.
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NASA is currently trying to figure out behind the scenes how best to proceed if Russia actually leaves the ISS project Washington Post. “We are exploring options to mitigate potential impacts on the International Space Station after 2024 if Russia does indeed withdraw,” the newspaper quoted John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council. “It’s the most responsible thing we can do.”
International Space Station: Is Russia Serious and Going “After 2024”?
+++ 3.45 p.m.: Is Russia serious this time about announcing that it will leave international cooperation around the International Space Station after 2024? So far this is not entirely clear. As the news agency Reuters reported, the US space agency Nasa has not yet received an official announcement. A NASA employee did Reuters communicated. The NASA director of the ISS, Robyn Gatens, has therefore stated that her Russian contacts had not informed her of such an intention. “We literally just saw that. We didn’t get anything official,” Gatens said.
Getting off the International Space Station takes more than an announcement in the media. Anyone wishing to leave the cooperation must give written notice of this at least one year in advance, reports the portal The Verge. However, the Russian announcement is very vague: There is talk of “after 2024”, details are not yet known. It remains to be seen how things will continue.
Russia wants to leave ISS cooperation “after 2024”.
First report from Tuesday, July 26, 1:40 p.m.: Moscow – Since the 1990s, Russia and international partners have been working together on and on the International Space Station. Now Russia wants out. “After 2024” the cooperation should be over, says the new head of the space agency Roskosmos, Yuri Borissow. “Of course, we will fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to exit this station after 2024 has been made,” Borisov said. “I think by that point we’ve started building a Russian space station.”
Since the beginning of the Ukraine war, the then head of Roskosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, had repeatedly indicated an end to the cooperation and also fueled speculation that Russia could crash the space station. The US Space Agency NASA had announced in return, one Continued operation of the ISS without investigating Russia. Although the space station is currently powered by the US part, the Russian part of the space station is responsible for correcting the trajectory, among other things. NASA is working on being able to carry out these maneuvers with its own spaceships.
International Space Station: Russia wants to withdraw “after 2024”.
Some time ago, SpaceX founders Elon Musk raised his own space company when Rogozin asked on Twitter who could save the ISS from an uncontrolled descent from orbit. SpaceX has been flying regularly to the International Space Station on behalf of NASA for several years and supplies the ISS with cargo. For several years they have been transporting “Crew Dragon”-Capsules from SpaceX also take astronauts to the space station. The German astronaut Matthew Maurer was already there.
For the first time, a Russian cosmonaut will be on board for the next SpaceX flight in autumn. US astronauts should continue to fly into space with the Russian Soyuz capsules. This is to prevent a nation from losing access to the ISS due to a technical problem. In the past, the USA was cut off from the space station for years and only had access via the Soyuz capsules: In 2011, NASA discontinued the expensive and dangerous “Space Shuttle” program and no longer had its own way of flying to the ISS. SpaceX has been filling this gap since 2020.
ISS is getting on in years – Nasa wants to operate it until 2030
The ISS has long since gotten old. The space laboratory in earth orbit will permanently inhabited by people since November 2000, but lately technical glitches and problems have increased. Nevertheless, NASA only recently advocated to operate the space station until 2030 and to crash it in a controlled manner in early 2031. (tab)
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