- Russia will pull out of the International Space Station partnership after 2024.
- The news was announced by the new head of Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly told the news in a meeting on Tuesday.
According to the Russian state news outlet TASS, Russia has chosen to end its participation; in the International Space Station cooperation after 2024. President Vladimir Putin apparently received the information from Yuri Borisov; the new head of Roscosmos, at a meeting on Tuesday.
According to a TASS article that was translated, Borisov remarked, “Vladimir Vladimirovich; you know that we are operating within the framework of international collaboration at the International Space Station”. We will, of course, uphold our commitments to our partners; but the choice to close this station after 2024 has already been decided.
The choice appears to confirm remarks made by Dmitry Rogozin, Borisov’s most recent predecessor; who publicly addressed the potential that Russia may leave the ISS accord; amid rising hostilities between Russia and the United States; following the former’s invasion of Ukraine. However, Rogozin had a history of making ludicrous claims and threats; about how Roscosmos would respond to US sanctions on Russia; so those remarks were rather suspicious. Additionally, Roscosmos was still trying to prolong its collaboration on the ISS with NASA through 2030; the present timeframe during which the US space agency aims to keep the space station operational; NASA has continued to minimise Russia’s retirement.
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It is still unclear how exactly this decision was conveyed to the United States. Senior NASA officials at the International Space Station Research and Development Conference (ISSRDC) in Washington, DC; on Tuesday said they had not heard from Roscosmos. NASA did not immediately react to The Verge’s request for a comment. During a panel discussion at the conference, Robyn Gatens, the director of NASA’s International Space Station; stated, “We haven’t heard any official news from the partner”. She mentioned that NASA will be discussing the strategy further in the future.
During the conference, NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren said they had only learned the news this morning from news sources.
During a transmission from the ISS, Lindgren stated, “That is fairly fresh news, so we haven’t heard anything officially. As a team, he continued, “We continue to strive for success; which means everyone working together to ensure that we are advancing the science; and maintaining the crew and the vehicle’s safety.”
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