According to Roscosmos CEO Yuri Borisov, all obligations to partners will be fulfilled
MOSCOW, July 26. /tass/. Russia will withdraw from the International Space Station (ISS) project after 2024, when the formation of a national orbital station will begin. This was stated on Tuesday by the Director General of Roscosmos Yuri Borisov at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin. This is Borisov's first meeting in his new position with the Russian leader.
The United States expected that cooperation would continue at least until 2030, but Russia has repeatedly expressed doubts about the possibility of this, especially under sanctions.
TASS has collected the main information about Moscow's decision to abandon the ISS.
The decision has been made
Russia, as Borisov stressed, will not participate in the work of the International Space Station after 2024: "Of course, we will fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision and departure from this station after 2024 have been made."
The previous head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, reported at the end of April that Moscow had already decided on the deadline for the end of participation in the project. Then he did not specify the decision, noting that the Russian side is not obliged to "talk about it publicly," but is obliged to warn partners a year in advance.
This decision was not made today, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov confirmed to TASS, commenting on Borisov's statement.
Why is Russia leaving
Roscosmos has repeatedly doubted the expediency of extending the life of the ISS until 2030, which the American side insisted on. In particular, as Rogozin noted in March, without repairs, work at the station will be dangerous for the crews, and "colossal money" will be required for repairs.
He also drew attention to Western restrictions against the Russian rocket and space industry and himself (joint projects related to the ISS were withdrawn from them), emphasizing that "the restoration of normal relations between partners <...> is possible only with the complete and unconditional lifting of illegal sanctions." In mid-March, Roscosmos sent letters to NASA, the European and Canadian Space Agencies about lifting restrictions from their enterprises, but Western partners made it clear that their decisions would not be reviewed. Then Rogozin directly linked the terms of cooperation on the International Space Station with the lifting of sanctions.
Borisov said that the state of the ISS leaves much to be desired, back in April 2021, while serving as deputy Prime Minister. He noted that because of this, Russia can focus on creating its own orbital station.
What will happen to the ISS
Moscow will continue to fulfill its obligations and send astronauts to the ISS for the time being - on July 14, Roscosmos and NASA signed an agreement on cross-flights on Russian and American ships. In accordance with it, the Russians will make three flights on Crew Dragon ships, the first of which will be Anna Kikina next fall.
The fate of the station after 2024 is still unclear - earlier Rogozin warned that the termination of cooperation could threaten its uncontrolled descent from orbit, since the latter is corrected by the engines of Russian Progress cargo ships. The first test correction with the help of the American Cygnus "truck" took place - on the second attempt - on June 25, however, RSC Energia stressed that this maneuver is impossible without Russian engines, which must be turned on to turn the ISS and return it "to the standby orientation".
The natural descent of the ISS to the height at which it will begin to burn up in the dense layers of the atmosphere will take "from two to five years, depending on the activity of the Sun," Dmitry Strugovets, head of the Roscosmos press service, said earlier.
There is a variant of controlled data of the ISS from orbit, as happened with the Mir station. The technical possibility of this "is being worked out, including with partners, since the creation of the station, as it is one of the stages of the flight of the product," RSC Energia reported, while the decision will be made at the level of the governments of the participating countries of the project. According to Rogozin, the procedure for flooding the ISS will take more than a year.
Own station
By 2024, Russia will begin the formation of a national orbital station, called ROSS - "Russian Orbital Service Station", Borisov expects. Its creation, according to him, will become a priority of the domestic manned cosmonautics.
The decision to create ROSS was made in 2021, and in early May 2022, Roscosmos signed a contract with RSC Energia to create a draft design of a new station.
It is assumed that at the first stage of deployment it will consist of four modules designed for two astronauts, and later two more modules and a service platform will be added to it, which will increase the crew to four people. At the same time, at the end of May, Rogozin said that the station would be automatic, and people would participate only in the delivery and installation of the payload, testing and repair work: "This is not a hotel for astronauts and tourists."
The previous head of Roscosmos also did not rule out that ROSS could become "military-applied" if by the time of its deployment the attitude towards Russia would be hostile, and the number of its allies would be limited.
It is assumed that the first module of the new station should be ready in 2025, but a final decision on the timing of its formation has not yet been made. At the same time, ROSS and the ISS can work in parallel for several years - as Rogozin said at the end of February, due to financial constraints, it is difficult to simultaneously participate in an international project and build a new station, therefore a certain "overlap period" is needed.
