“The decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made,” said Yuri Borisov, who was appointed this month to head Roscosmos, the state-controlled company responsible for the country’s space program. The announcement was made during a meeting between Mr. Borisov and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Mr Borisov told Mr Putin that Russia would meet its commitments by 2024. “I think by this time we will start forming the Russian orbital station,” he said. Mr. Putin’s response: “Good.” NASA did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and it is unclear whether Russia has formally notified NASA and other space station partners that it will abandon the project. In the past, NASA has said it plans to continue operating the space station until the end of 2030. “This could be a snub by the Russians,” said Phil Larson, a White House adviser on space during the Obama administration. “It could be reconsidered or it could be carried out.” The announcement may not mean the station ceases to exist after 2024, but experts say it clouds the prospect of keeping the station going until the end of the decade. “The withdrawal will take some time,” said Pavel Luzin, a Russian military and space analyst. “Most likely, we should interpret this as Russia’s refusal to extend the operation of the station until 2030.” How long the station can operate without Russia’s involvement is uncertain. The orbiting outpost consists of two divisions, one led by NASA and the other by Russia. The two are interrelated. Much of the power on the Russian side comes from NASA’s solar panels, while the Russians provide propulsion to periodically raise the orbiter. The station’s first module was launched in 1998, and astronauts have lived there since 2002. Built as a symbol of post-Cold War cooperation between the world’s two superpowers, the partnership has weathered many ups and downs in bilateral relations between the United States and the United States. Russia. Over the past 20 years, it has become an important laboratory for scientific research in space and a test bed for demonstrating commercial opportunities in orbit, such as space tourism and advanced manufacturing. Speaking from orbit at a conference on space station research, Kjell Lindgren, one of NASA’s astronauts, said nothing has changed up there yet.
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“This is very recent news,” he said, “so we haven’t heard anything officially. Of course, you know, we trained to do a mission up here and that mission is one that requires the whole crew.” With tension between Washington and Moscow rising after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Russian space officials, including Dmitry Rogozin, Mr Borisov’s predecessor, had said in recent months that Russia planned to withdraw. But they left unclear when or if a final decision had been made. NASA officials, who want to extend the space station’s operations until 2030, have expressed confidence that Russia will remain. Russia has plans for its own space station, but Roscosmos has been financially strapped for years. After the retirement of the US space shuttles in 2011, NASA had to buy seats on the Soyuz rockets, providing a steady flow of money to the Russians. That revenue dropped when SpaceX began providing transportation to NASA astronauts two years ago. Russia lost additional sources of revenue as a result of economic sanctions that prevented companies from European and other nations from launching satellites on its rockets. “Without cooperation with the West, the Russian space program is impossible in all its parts, including the military,” Dr Luzin said. Russia is also seeking more cooperation with China’s space program, which launched a laboratory module on Sunday to add to its Tiangong space station. But Tiangong is not in an orbit that can be reached by Russia’s launch sites, and much of the discussion between the two countries has focused on cooperation in lunar exploration. “The prospect of cooperation with China is a fantasy,” Dr Luzin said. “The Chinese saw Russia as a potential partner until 2012 and stopped since then. Today, Russia cannot offer anything to China in terms of space.” Not too long ago, it was the United States that wanted to terminate the International Space Station after 2024. In 2018, the Trump administration proposed ending federal funding for the space station, hoping to transfer its astronauts to commercial stations. That initiative was halted a year later when NASA turned its attention to accelerating plans to send astronauts back to the Moon. NASA is still trying to start a market for future commercial space stations. In December, it awarded contracts worth a total of $415.6 million to three companies — Blue Origin of Kent, Wash.; Houston’s Nanoracks? and Northrop Grumman of Dulles, Va. — to develop their plans. NASA’s inspector general, however, has warned that even if the International Space Station continues until 2030, commercial follow-ups may not be ready in time and there could be a gap where NASA does not have an orbiting laboratory to research conduct. especially the long-term health effects of zero gravity and radiation on astronauts. If Russia’s decision leads to the abandonment of the ISS, then China would have the only space station in orbit. China has offered to fly astronauts from other nations to Tiangong. Astronauts from the European Space Agency have already trained with Chinese astronauts. Generally, NASA is prohibited from working directly with China in space.
