Yuri Borisov, appointed this month to head the state space agency Roscosmos, said during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin that Russia would fulfill its obligations to its partners before pulling out of the project. “The decision to abandon the station after 2024 has been made,” Borisov said, adding: “I think by that time we will begin to form a Russian station in orbit.” Borissov’s statement confirmed earlier statements by Russian space officials about Moscow’s intention to abandon the space station after 2024 when current international arrangements for its operation expire. NASA and other international partners hope to keep the space station operational until 2030, while the Russians have been reluctant to make commitments beyond 2024. NASA had no immediate comment. The space station is jointly managed by the space agencies of Russia, the US, Europe, Japan and Canada. The first piece was launched 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 typically has a crew of seven, who spend months at a time on the station as it orbits about 250 miles from Earth. Three Russians, three Americans and an Italian are now on board. The complex, which is about the size of a football field, consists of two main sections, one run by Russia, the other by the US and other 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 once Moscow withdraws. The Russian announcement is sure to prompt speculation that it is part of Moscow’s maneuvering to win relief from Western sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine. Borisov’s predecessor, Dmitry Rogozin, said last month that Moscow would only be able to participate in negotiations on a possible extension of the station’s operations if the US lifted sanctions against Russian space industries. With Elon Musk’s company SpaceX now flying NASA astronauts to and from the space station, the Russian Space Agency has lost an important source of income. For years, NASA paid tens of millions of dollars per seat for rides to and from the station on Russian rockets. Despite tensions over Ukraine, NASA and Roscosmos struck a deal earlier this month for astronauts to continue piloting Russian rockets and for Russian cosmonauts to catch elevators to the space station with SpaceX launching this fall. But the flights will not involve money exchange. According to NASA and Russian officials, the agreement ensures that the space station will always have at least one American and one Russian to keep both sides of the outpost running smoothly. Moscow and Washington cooperated in space even at the height of the Cold War, when the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft tied into orbit in 1975 on the first international crewed space mission, helping to improve US-Soviet relations. NASA is working with American companies to build their own private space stations to eventually replace the International Space Station. NASA hopes to have these commercial space stations operational by the end of the decade.
Marcia Dunn in Cape Canaveral contributed to this report.
