Russia has reversed its decision to withdraw from NASA‘s International Space Station (ISS) by 2024, saying it will now keep its cosmonauts in the orbiting lab until their own orbital outpost is built — but it won’t happen before 2028.
The country’s upcoming station will be called the Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS), but will be used drastically differently from the ISS, most notably that it will not be permanently occupied.
Vladimir Solovyov, the flight director of the Russian segment of the space station, said Russia must remain on the station until the Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS) is operational.
“Of course we have to continue to operate the ISS until we create a more or less tangible backlog for ROSS,” Solovyov said.
“We have to keep in mind that if we shut down manned flights for a number of years, it will be very difficult to restore what has been achieved.”
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In the front row (from left) are NASA Jessica Watkins and Roscosmos Sergey Korsakov. In the back (from left) are Roscosmos Denis Matveev; NASA Flight Engineers Kjell Lindgren and Bob Hines; ESA Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti; and Roscosmos commander Oleg Artemyev. These are the current inhabitants of the ISS
News of Russia’s departure made headlines worldwide on Tuesday morning, but it seemed that NASA were the only ones in the dark.
Both astronauts on the ISS and team members on the ground said they have “officially heard nothing” about the plans and that “everyone at the station is working together right now,” conducting research and maintaining the orbiting lab.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson told DailyMail.com, following news of the divorce on Tuesday, in a statement: “NASA has not been notified of any decisions made by any of the partners, although we continue to build future capabilities to support our large presence in low Earth orbit.’
Vladimir Solovyov (left), the flight director of the Russian segment of the space station, said Russia must remain at the station until the Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS) is operational
However, Russia’s announcement stated that it would withdraw from the ISS “after 2024” to build its own equivalent – direct words coming from the newly appointed chief of the space agency Roscosmos, Yury Borisov.
“I think by then we will start building a Russian orbital station,” Borisov said during a meeting with Putinaccording to a report by the Moscow Timeswith the space program being called the main ‘priority’.
“Of course we will fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to leave this station after 2024 has been made,” Borisov added.
Citing an unnamed industry source, Interfax reported that Russia’s new space station would cost $6 billion.
However, ROSS doesn’t take pages from NASA’s playbook when it comes to its operations.
Cosmonauts will only stay on the ship for two months at a time, launching them into space only when necessary, futurism reports.
The docking station is the Nauka module, which docked with the International Space Station last year, according to Solovyov.
The Scientific and Energy Module will be the first to be built, along with a six-station docking module for capsules to drop off cosmonauts.
Launched in 1998 by the Russian and US space agencies, the ISS was a rare area of cooperation between Moscow and Washington, as relations have deteriorated sharply in recent years.
Earlier this year, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov posed with a flag of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic at the International Space Station (ISS)
Russia has shared details about its upcoming station, noting the docking station Nauka module (pictured), which docked with the International Space Station last year
Launched in 1998 by the Russian and US space agencies, the ISS has been a rare area of cooperation between Moscow and Washington as relations have deteriorated sharply in recent years.
On June 23, 1994, Vice President Gore announced that he and Victor Chernomyrdin, then Prime Minister, had agreed on a contract that funneled $400 million into the Shuttle-Mir project. This project was intended to provide a large and habitable science laboratory in space and so the two countries teamed up to create the ISS.
Earlier this month, NASA was forced to take sides when three cosmonaut-cosmonauts displayed anti-Ukraine propaganda aboard the ISS — and it didn’t side with Russia.
The three cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov, shared a photo of them holding flags of the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic – two Russian-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine that only pass through Moscow and Russia. Syria.
They claimed the conquest of the region was “a liberation day to celebrate both on Earth and in space.”
The move forced NASA to reprimand Russia for using the ISS “for political purposes to support its war against Ukraine.”
Press Secretary Jackie McGuinness added it was “fundamentally contrary to the station’s primary function among the 15 international participating countries to advance science and develop technology for peaceful purposes.”
EXPLAINED: THE $100 BILLION INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION IS 250 MILES ABOVE THE EARTH
The International Space Station (ISS) is a $100 billion (£80 billion) science and engineering laboratory orbiting 400 kilometers above the Earth.
It has been permanently manned by rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts since November 2000.
Crews are mainly from the US and Russia, but the Japanese space agency JAXA and the European space agency ESA have also sent astronauts.
The International Space Station has been continuously occupied for over 20 years and has been expanded with multiple new modules added and upgrades to systems
Research aboard the ISS often requires one or more of the unusual conditions present in low Earth orbit, such as low gravity or oxygen.
ISS studies have explored human research, space medicine, life sciences, natural sciences, astronomy and meteorology.
The US space agency NASA spends about $3 billion (£2.4 billion) a year on the space station program, with the remaining funding coming from international partners, including Europe, Russia and Japan.
So far, 244 individuals from 19 countries have visited the station, including eight citizens who spent up to $50 million for their visit.
There is an ongoing debate about the station’s future after 2025, when it is believed that some of the original structure will reach the end of its life.
Russia, a major partner in the station, plans to launch its own orbital platform around that time, while Axiom Space, a private company, plans to simultaneously send its own modules for purely commercial use to the station.
NASA, ESA, JAXA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) are collaborating to build a space station in orbit around the moon, and Russia and China are working on a similar project, which would also include a surface base.