Russia will pull out of the International Space Station (ISS) after 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost, the country’s space chief has said, in a move that will end a symbolic two-decade orbital partnership between Moscow and the west.
Yuri Borisov, the newly appointed head of the space agency Roscosmos, said during a meeting with Vladimir Putin that Russia would fulfil its obligations to its partners on the ISS before leaving the project.
“The decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made,” Borisov said, to which Putin responded: “Good.”
Borisov’s statement reaffirmed previous declarations made by the previous Roscosmos head, Dmitry Rogozin, about Moscow’s intention to leave the station after 2024. The outspoken Rogozin had threatened to end the partnership unless the US, EU and Canada lifted their sanctions against enterprises involved in the Russian space industry.
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The first version of the ISS was launched in 1998, and astronauts from a range of western countries and Russia have continuously lived there since 2000, the longest constant human presence in low Earth orbit in history. The station was widely seen as a symbol of the post-cold war partnership between the two space superpowers, Russia and the US. Speaking in 2001 alongside the then US president, George W Bush, Putin lauded the ISS as an example of “very successful” bilateral ties between the two countries.
Soon after Borisov’s meeting with Putin, Roscosmos released an image on its social media channels of what it said was a blueprint for its own orbiting outpost. The blueprint said the space station would accommodate two Russian astronauts at first, eventually expanding to four.
A senior Nasa official told Reuters on Tuesday that Russia has not communicated its intent to withdraw from the ISS.
Despite widespread condemnation of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, space had remained one of the last avenues for cooperation between Moscow and the west.
Nasa and Roscosmos made a deal this month for astronauts to continue riding Russian rockets and for Russian cosmonauts to catch lifts to the ISS with the private US rocket company SpaceX beginning in the autumn.
The agreement ensured the ISS would always have at least one American and one Russian onboard to keep both sides of the outpost running smoothly, Nasa and Russian officials said.
Still, Borisov’s latest announcement to leave the ISS will not come as a surprise given Moscow’s growing isolation. Russia’s space agency caused controversy this month when it released images of its cosmonauts onboard the ISS celebrating Moscow’s capture of the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk.
