Russia plans to pull out from the International Space Station by 2024
Europe, News July 27, 2022 2 Comments on Russia plans to pull out from the International Space Station by 2024Russia plans to quit the International Space Station (ISS) by 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost in space.
Russia’s newly appointed space chief Yuri Borisov announced on July 27 that his country plans to focus on building its own space outpost, due to which Russian astronauts would be called back from the ISS after completing their obligated missions by 2024.
Russia is planning to allocate more resources toward building its own space station for a long time. Russia plans to start constructing its own space station named Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS) by 2024. The decision to create Russia’s own orbital outpost was finalized in 2021 and in May 2022 Russia’s space agency Roscosmos signed a contract with Russia’s Energia Space Rocket Corporation for making the first basic module for the station.
Russia’s efforts to pull out of the ISS and build an independent space station seem to have gained more momentum amid the ongoing tensions between Russia and the West due to the war in Ukraine.
Borisov was appointed as the chief of Roscosmos last month. His first significant task since the appointment comes in the form of the announcement to pull out from the ISS. While announcing Russia’s plans quit the International Space Program he stated that “We will definitely fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to withdraw from this station after 2024 has been made.”
While speaking at the ISS Research and Development Conference, the U.S. space agency NASA’s ISS director Robyn Gatens stated that NASA has not received any kind of official information about whether or not the Roscosmos plans to halt its operations by 2024.
The ISS was supposed to end its operations in 2024, however, NASA formally extended the date of its operations until 2030 after being instructed by the White House in 2021. Roscosmos had shown its reservations towards NASA’s decisions to extend the ISS operations till 2030.
The ISS is jointly run by space agencies from Russia, Japan, Canada, the U.S., and Europe. The first ISS component was launched in 1998 and the first long-term resident astronauts of the ISS arrived at the station in November 2000. It has been more than 21 years since then that the station has been continuously occupied by astronauts from all the participant countries. With an estimated cost of $150 billion, the ISS is described as the single most expensive item ever constructed by mankind.
In January 2022, NASA announced that after completing its mission 2031, the ISS would be de-orbited and dismantled while some of its remnants would be directed towards the South Pacific Ocean on earth.
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[…] year, Moscow also announced its plans to quit the International Space Station (ISS) by 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost in space. Russia is planning to […]
[…] year, Moscow also announced its plans to quit the International Space Station (ISS) by 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost in space. Russia is planning to […]