Russia will pull out of the International Space Station after 2024 and focus on building its own station, the country’s new space chief said.
“The decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made,” Yuri Borisov, chief of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, said during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
“We will fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to leave this station after 2024 has been made,” Yuri Borisov said.
He said Russia would “begin to form” the proposed Russian Orbital Station (ROSS) as it exits the multilateral endeavor at a time of high tensions between Moscow and the West over the former’s invasion of Ukraine. “The main priorities will be made on the creation of the Russian orbital station,” he told Putin.
NASA officials said they had yet to hear directly from their Russian counterparts on the announcement. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson issued a statement saying that the agency was “committed to the safe operation” of the space station through 2030 and continues “to build future capabilities to assure our major presence in low-Earth orbit.”
The International Space Station Intergovernmental Agreement is an international treaty signed by the fifteen governments involved in the Space Station project. TheI SS is a cooperative program between Europe, the United States, Russia, Canada, and Japan for the joint development, operation and utilization of a permanently inhabited Space Station in low Earth orbit.
