US 'surprised' by Russia's decision to leave ISS, calls it 'unfortunate development'

The United States on Tuesday termed Russia’s decision to quit the International Space Station (ISS) as an “unfortunate development”. Russian space agency’s newly-appointed chief Yury Borisov had previously told President Vladimir Putin that Moscow would quit ISS “after 2024” as tensions with the US continue to increase. Following the announcement, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that Washington was taken by “surprise” by Russia’s public statement. 

Price said, "It's an unfortunate development given the critical scientific work performed at the ISS, the valuable professional collaboration our space agencies have had over the years, and especially in light of our renewed agreement on space-flight cooperation."

"I understand that we were taken by surprise by the public statement," he told reporters.

Russia and the US have worked together on the ISS which has been in orbit since 1998 and it was also one of the few areas which remained unaffected by Russia-US tensions over the war in Ukraine. Roscosmos chief, Borisov told Putin on Tuesday, “Of course, we will fulfil all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to leave this station after 2024 has been made”. After being appointed to the position only in mid-July, the Russian space agency chief also added, “I think that by this time we will start putting together a Russian orbital station” which would be the main “priority”.

In the remarks released by Kremlin, Putin replied to Borisov by saying, “Good”.

NASA denies receiving ‘official word’ from Russia over ISS

While Borisov said the space industry was in a "difficult situation", NASA's director of the ISS, Robyn Gatens said that the American space agency did not receive any “official word” from Russia. On being asked if she was hoping for US-Russia space ties to end, she replied, “No, absolutely not”. Gatens said, “They have been good partners, as all of our partners are, and we want to continue together, as a partnership, to continue operating space station through the decade”. 

It is to mention here that NASA is itself planning to retire the ISS which was touted as the symbol of unity after the cold war era. The US Space agency was planning the action after 2030 as it made the transition with commercial space stations. 

Image: AP