Yuri Borisov, who was appointed this month to head the state space agency, Roscosmos, said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia would fulfill its obligations to its partners before leaving the project.
“The decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made,” Borisov said on Tuesday, adding: “I think at that time we will start forming a Russian orbital station.”
This Dec. 6, 2021 photo provided by NASA shows the International Space Station orbiting hundreds of kilometers above the Tyrrhenian Sea (AP)
Borisov’s statement reaffirmed earlier statements by Russian space officials about Moscow’s intention to abandon the space station after 2024, when current international agreements for its operation end.
The space station is jointly managed by the space agencies of Russia, the US, Europe, Japan and Canada.
The first piece was put into orbit in 1998, and the outpost has been continuously inhabited for nearly 22 years. It is used to conduct scientific research in zero gravity and test equipment for future space travel.
It usually has a crew of seven, who spend months at a time aboard the station, as it orbits about 400 kilometers from Earth. The complex, almost as long as a football field, consists of two main sections, one run by Russia and the other by the US and the rest of the countries.
It was not immediately clear what would need to be done on the Russian side of the complex to continue safely operating the space station after Moscow withdraws.
This Nov. 8, 2021 photo provided by NASA shows the International Space Station photographed from inside a window aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour. (AP)
The Russian announcement is sure to fuel speculation that it is part of Moscow’s maneuvering to get relief from Western sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine.
Borisov’s predecessor, Dmitri Rogozin, said last month that Moscow could participate in negotiations on a possible expansion of the station’s operations only if the US lifted sanctions on Russian space industries.
With Elon Musk’s company SpaceX now flying NASA astronauts to and from the space station, the Russian Space Agency lost a major source of revenue. For years, NASA had been paying tens of millions of dollars per seat for trips there from the station aboard Russian rockets.
Despite tensions over Ukraine, NASA and Roscosmos reached an agreement earlier this month for astronauts to continue riding Russian rockets and for Russian cosmonauts to ride elevators to the space station with SpaceX starting this fall. But the flights will not involve the exchange of money.
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The agreement ensures that the space station 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.
Moscow and Washington cooperated in space even at the height of the Cold War, when the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft docked in orbit in 1975 in the first international manned space mission, helping to improve relations between the USA and the Soviet Union.