Russia plans to exit the International Space Station after 2024. That said the new head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, Yuri Borissov, at a meeting with Russian President Valdimir Putin. “Of course we will fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to exit this station after 2024 has been made,” said Borissov, whom Putin had previously appointed to succeed Dmitry Rogozin.
Rogozin had repeatedly questioned cooperation with the USA, also in view of political tensions between Moscow and Washington in the wake of the war in Ukraine, and also suggested an exit in two years. Borissov said that after the end of cooperation, the construction of a Russian space station should begin. The ISS was getting on in years and had repeatedly caused a stir due to breakdowns.
Rogozin had previously not ruled out decoupling the Russian module from the ISS and continuing to operate it independently. He also indicated a possible use of the station for military earth observation. Following the war of aggression against Ukraine ordered by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, Western countries have also imposed sanctions on the Russian space industry.
There was recently a controversy on board the ISS because of the Ukraine war. First, three Russian cosmonauts on the ISS showed the flags of the “People’s Republics” in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine. Americans, Europeans and Canadians protested. After that, the then Roskosmos boss had ordered work to be stopped with a robotic arm used in outdoor work.