According to Academician Alexander Sergeev, most of the cosmonauts' working time is spent on maintaining the life of the ISS to the detriment of various research programs.
MOSCOW, July 26. /tass/. The decision to withdraw Russia from the International Space Station (ISS) program after 2024 is justified, since most of the cosmonauts' working time is spent on maintaining the life of the ISS to the detriment of various research programs. This opinion was expressed on Tuesday by the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) Academician Alexander Sergeev.
"I must say that both the ISS project itself and the Russian segment of the station are very expensive. Today, the state of the station is such that most of the astronauts' working time in orbit is spent on maintaining the life of the ISS. Research programs are suffering. In these conditions, it is difficult to talk about the effectiveness of the ISS, of course, and this is one of the significant reasons why such a decision was made," he said.
At the same time, Sergeyev noted that "since the ISS is a joint brainchild of different countries, they became concerned after the announcement that we would leave." "Next, I am sure, Russia will build its own space station. It has been discussed many times what it should be and what orbit it should be in," the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences noted.
He also said that the Russian Academy of Sciences expects to continue working together with Roscosmos on the development of scientific space programs.
"We will invite the new head of Roscosmos [Yuri Borisov] for a working meeting, and we look forward to continuing multilateral and active cooperation with the state corporation. Traditionally, the head of Roscosmos is present at the Space Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and we hope that scientific space will continue to play a significant role in its activities," the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences said.
New orbital station
Earlier on Tuesday, the Director General of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that the main priority of the Russian Federation in manned cosmonautics will be the creation of the Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS).
In April 2021, Borisov, who at that time was deputy prime minister, stated that the state of the ISS leaves much to be desired, so Russia can focus on creating its own orbital station. RSC Energia was tasked with ensuring the readiness of the first module for a new domestic orbital station in 2025, it will be a scientific and energy module, which was previously supposed to be launched to the ISS in 2024.
The Scientific and Technical Council of Roscosmos recommended that work on the creation of a technical project for a new orbital station be included in the Federal Space Program until 2025. At the end of February this year, Dmitry Rogozin, who at that time headed the state corporation, stated that due to financial constraints it was difficult to simultaneously implement the ISS project and the construction of a new station. According to him, it is necessary to provide for a certain "overlap period" when the ISS and ROSS will be operated in parallel for some time.
