Russia to prioritise building its space station post leaving the ISS after 2024: Report

Newly appointed Roscosmos Director-General Yuri Borisov has revealed that Russia will prioritise the development of its own space station after exiting the International Space Station (ISS) after 2024. Borisov made the announcement of Roscosmos’ intent to end outer space cooperation during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. This, however, does not comes as a surprise since former Roscosmos head, Dmitry Rogozin, had threatened to leave the ISS in 2024 on multiple occasions citing the global economic sanctions.

“We will continue the piloted program in compliance with the plans approved. The main focus will be on creating a Russian orbital station," Borisov said as per Russian news agency TASS. 

Dubbed the Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS), the outpost is likely to be installed at an altitude of 400 kilometres if not higher. A previous report had suggested that if the ROSS’ first module is in the same orbit as the ISS, the Russian segment of the space station will dock with the former. The first module of ROSS is currently being developed by Russia’s Energia Space Rocket Corporation and is targeted for launch in 2025.

Reacting to the announcement, NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, during a conference from the ISS said that there has been no official confirmation of the news. “We were trained to do a mission up here, and that mission is one that requires the whole crew”, The Verge reported him saying. 

Russia-Ukraine crisis spills into outer space

Russia’s decision to exit the space station is a result of the heavy economic sanctions imposed by the western nations for Putin’s war on Ukraine. As of July 26, the war is in its 153rd day and Roscosmos has ruined its relations with almost every major space agency including NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), along with the agencies of Japan, Germany and Canada. 

Russia, however, is still willing to conduct cross flights with NASA by sending its cosmonauts to space in an American spacecraft. For instance, cosmonaut Anna Kikina has been selected to launch to the ISS in a SpaceX Dragon capsule under the Crew-5 mission targeted for this September. Additionally, Andrei Fedyaev, another Russian has been chosen for the Crew-6 mission scheduled for the spring of 2023. In return, Roscosmos will launch NASA astronauts in its Soyuz capsules in future missions to the space station.