Cosmonaut Andrey Borisenko described the pros and cons of launching the Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS). According to him, the main advantage of independent work in space is that it will be possible to cover the entire territory of the country in terms of observation. When working on the International Space Station (ISS), part of the territory does not fall into the visibility zone of scientists. Among the disadvantages of independent work, Borisenko called the exit from a major international project. However, the pilot-cosmonaut expressed his conviction in an interview with Lenta.Over time, the work on ROSS will bring together specialists from all over the world and turn into a large-scale scientific collaboration of countries.
Coverage for the whole of Russia
"I believe that the orbit of the station will be designed for the needs of our country. Borisenko suggested. — That is, for example, by satellite point it will cover most, if not all, of the territory of the Russian Federation. Which, of course, is a plus, because now we are flying under a different inclination and, unfortunately, a fairly large part of the territory of Russia does not fall into the visibility zone, in which, from a technical point of view, various experiments related to observing the Earth from space can be carried out."
In addition, the work on ROSS is the development of its own field of manned space technology, the cosmonaut stressed. "In particular, our engineering school and the school of our foreign colleagues are different. And we are forced to link some issues at the station, that is, to look for some kind of balance of interests. And the balance of interests is always some kind of compromise on our part and on the part of colleagues," Borisenko said.
A completely Russian station will be deprived of the need to find compromises. Accordingly, we will be able to do everything at our discretion and understanding how it should be and work
pilot-cosmonaut Andrey Borisenko
Exit from the international project
Borisenko considered the fact of withdrawal from the ISS program to be the main disadvantage of independent work in space.
"The downside is that we will stop implementing such a long—term, very complex, technically voluminous project as the International Space Station," he said.
The pilot-cosmonaut reminded. that the ISS is the most expensive object in the history of mankind at the moment. "For almost 25 years, Russia, Russian scientists, together with foreign colleagues, have been developing this project. For information: there are 15 participating countries in the ISS project. Coordination of the implementation of the entire flight program of the station was carried out by all the teams of the participating countries of the project, scattered throughout the Earth. At the same time, of course, we have gained some experience, rules and understanding of working with our colleagues on how to implement this from an organizational, legal, technical, from all points of view. I think that this experience is invaluable and in fact, except in this project, it cannot be obtained to such an extent in others," Borisenko believes.
According to him, it will not be possible to develop and enrich this experience alone.
But I think sooner or later we will still come to the same serious, long-term, large-scale technical project of international cooperation, of course, with the equal participation of all countries
pilot-cosmonaut Andrey Borisenko
The decision on Russia's withdrawal from the International Space Station project after 2024 was made on July 26. This was announced by the Director General of the state corporation "Roscosmos" Yuri Borisov at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Earlier in July, Roscosmos reported that an astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA) went into outer space in a spacesuit from Russia for the first time on the ISS.
