Moscow, 13 April 2023 (GNP): Russia declared on Wednesday that it would extend its partnership with the International Space Station (ISS) until 2028, in a striking shift from a previous statement that it would leave the orbiting laboratory after 2024.
Moscow’s participation in the international space project has been extended according to Yuri Borisov, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, who stated on Wednesday.
In a televised meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Borisov said, “By the decision of the government, the operation of the International Space Station has been extended until 2028”.
The “time has come,” he claimed, to talk about establishing a Russian orbital station.
The Kremlin chief was advised by Borisov that, “Time is running fast and we cannot take a break from manned spaceflight under any circumstances”.
The country has previously said that it will end its participation in the ISS program by 2024 or later. Moreover, it stated that the timetable will be determined by the progress of its own space station.
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The current decision comes as certain Russian authorities involved in the nation’s space program have said that the building of the Russian space station won’t begin until 2028 or later.
A draft layout for the facility is anticipated to be completed this summer, according to Roscosmos, which estimates the building cost at 600 billion rubles, or 7.3 billion dollars.
The station, according to Putin, would be used to develop the nation’s lunar exploration program.
Following the Cold War “Space Race,” US and Russian collaboration strengthened, and this coincided with the launch of the ISS in 1998.
The ISS partners—the United States, Russia, Europe, Canada, and Japan—had only agreed to run the orbiting laboratory until 2024, despite US officials’ statements to the contrary. They wish to extend the mission until 2030.
Since Russia dispatched soldiers to Ukraine, the collaboration between Moscow and Washington in the space industry is extremely odd.