The decision to continue work on the Russian segment of the International Space Station will be made after 2024. This was announced on Sunday, April 18, by the press service of Roscosmos.
"We have agreed with our partners on the ISS the term of work at the station — 2024. After this period, the decision will be made based on the technical condition of the station's modules, which have mostly worked out their service life, as well as our plans for the deployment of a new generation national orbital service station," the state corporation said.
After the decision is made, negotiations with partners on the conditions and forms of interaction after 2024 will begin.
Earlier in the day, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov announced Moscow's plans to withdraw from the ISS project from 2025 and start creating its own space station.
The day before, Soyuz MS-17 delivered to Earth three members of the ISS crew-Russians Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, as well as American astronaut Kathleen Rubins.
Seven crew members remained on the ISS: Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, Mark Vande Hai, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi.
The ISS was put into orbit in 1998, and two years later the first astronauts settled on the station. The participants of the international project are 14 countries: Russia, the United States, Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency members Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, France, Switzerland, and Sweden. The station will expire in 2024. In November, it became known about plans to extend its operation until 2030.
