Russia will give up the International Space Station (ISS) after 2024 and focus on building its own outpost in orbit, the country’s new space chief said on Tuesday.
Yuri Borisov, who was appointed earlier this month to head the state-controlled space corporation Roscosmos, said during a meeting with Vladimir Putin that Russia would fulfill its obligations to its partners on the ISS before leaving the project
“The decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made,” Borisov said.
His statement reaffirmed earlier statements by Russian space officials about Moscow’s intention to abandon the station after 2024.
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It comes amid growing tensions between Russia and the West over the invasion of Ukraine.
Despite the rift, NASA and Roscosmos reached an agreement earlier this month for astronauts to continue riding Russian rockets and for Russian cosmonauts to board the ISS with private US rocket company SpaceX from of autumn
The agreement ensures that the ISS will always have at least one American and one Russian on board to keep both sides of the outpost running smoothly, according to NASA and Russian officials.
The exchange had been in the works for some time and was completed despite friction over the Ukraine war in a sign of continued Russian-US cooperation in space.
A senior NASA official told Reuters on Tuesday that Russia has not communicated its intention to withdraw from the ISS.