![]() ![]() “Russia destroyed the basis for these relations,” said Luzin. While the US, Europe, Canada and Japan have plans for the moon, including a lunar space station, Russia will partner with China for a separate lunar station and moon base.įor Russia, the prospect of future space collaborations with the west looks dim, and that could affect its aspirations. Whatever the fate of the International Space Station, the next step in human space exploration will see alliances shift. “The US and other partners do have all necessary capabilities and technologies for this.” Another option is to pay Russia to carry on with its station-keeping service. “It is not easy, but technically it is possible,” said Luzin. Northrop Grumman and SpaceX are contenders for taking over if Russia drops out, but it is not a trivial job. That role is now fulfilled by the Russian Progress spacecraft, which gives the ISS periodic boosts to maintain its altitude. If Russia quits, the immediate task would be keeping the station in orbit. ![]() The US and its partners have to take this seriously.” “With all the ramifications of the Ukraine situation, resuscitating west-Russia cooperation is going to be very challenging. “It’s been a hope that Russia could be persuaded to continue, but that hope was pre-Ukraine,” he said. As Dr Pavel Luzin, a Russian military and space analyst, points out, Borisov said “after 2024”, not “at the end of 2024”, leaving the door open for longer involvement.ĭr John Logsdon, the former director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, said that with Russia’s stance on the ISS, space agencies would be in dereliction of their duty if they had not made contingency plans. Russia sends actor and director to ISS to make film in space – videoīut the extreme uncertainty over Russia’s commitment means that space agencies working on the ISS must plan for the country’s departure while hoping it stays on. In the years beforehand, the station may further open its airlocks to commercial enterprises, for activities as broad as tourism, sports and moviemaking. Nasa’s current plan is to ditch the ISS in 2031, de-orbiting the ageing structure on a trajectory that would send any remnants of re-entry into a remote region of the south Pacific Ocean. (Rogozin has a reputation for wayward remarks, once suggesting Nasa transport its astronauts to the ISS via a trampoline.) Responding to the sanctions, Rogozin, who was dismissed as the head of Roscosmos this month, claimed the station could crash on an unsuspecting nation without the Russians to keep it aloft. The US and Russia entered talks in January to operate the ISS until 2030, but Russia’s war in Ukraine triggered a fresh round of sanctions, with some having a direct impact on the country’s space programme. The threat was dropped, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year sparked further upheaval for space cooperation that looks far harder to repair. In 2014, Russia’s then deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin said his country would reject plans to extend ISS operations beyond 2020, in protest against sanctions over the annexation of Crimea. Space experts say the construction of a new orbital station could take more than a decade and Moscow's departure from the International Space Station would deal a significant blow to its program of manned flights.Fractures in the partnership, which also includes Europe, Canada and Japan, have appeared before. The space sector is a rare venue of cooperation between Moscow and Washington since Russia sent troops to Ukraine. ISS partners-the United States, Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan-are for the moment only committed to operate the orbiting laboratory until 2024, though US officials have stated they want to continue until 2030. The ISS was launched in 1998 at a time of increased US-Russia cooperation following the Cold War "Space Race." ![]() "Time is running fast and we cannot take a break from manned spaceflight under any circumstances," Borisov told the Kremlin chief. He said the "time has come" to discuss the creation of a Russian orbital station. "By the decision of the government, the operation of the International Space Station has been extended until 2028," Borisov told President Vladimir Putin during a televised meeting, referring to the Russian segment. On Wednesday, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, said Moscow's participation in the international space project had been extended. In July last year, Moscow said it was leaving the International Space Station "after 2024" as ties unraveled between the Kremlin and the West over Moscow's military intervention in Ukraine. ![]()
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