MOSCOW (AP) — Russia will retire from the International Space Station after 2024 and focus on building its own outpost in orbit, the country’s new space chief said Tuesday amid high tensions between Moscow and the West over the fighting in Ukraine
The announcement, while not unexpected, casts doubt on the future of the 24-year-old space station, with experts saying it would be extremely difficult, perhaps a “nightmare,” according to one calculation, to keep it running without the Russians . NASA and its partners hoped to continue operating it until 2030.
“The decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made,” Yuri Borisov, appointed this month to head Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, said during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin. He added: “I think at that time we will begin to form a Russian orbital station.”
The space station has long been a symbol of post-Cold War international teamwork in the name of science, but it is now one of the last areas of cooperation between the US and the Kremlin.
NASA officials said they had not yet heard directly from their Russian counterparts on the matter. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson issued a statement saying the agency was “committed to the safe operation” of the space station through 2030 and continues to “build future capabilities to ensure our significant presence in space low earth orbit”.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price called the announcement “an unfortunate development” given the “valuable professional partnership our space agencies have had over the years.” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the US is “exploring options” to deal with the Russian withdrawal.
Borisov’s statement reaffirmed earlier statements by Russian space officials about Moscow’s intention to abandon the space station after 2024, when current international agreements for its operation end.
Russian officials have long talked about their desire to launch their own space station and have complained that wear and tear on the aging International Space Station is compromising safety and could make it difficult to extend its useful life.
Cost may also be a factor: With Elon Musk’s SpaceX now flying NASA astronauts to and from the space station, the Russian space agency lost a major source of revenue. For years, NASA had been paying tens of millions of dollars per seat for rides aboard Russian Soyuz rockets.
The Russian announcement is sure to fuel speculation that it is part of Moscow’s maneuvering to get relief from Western sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine. Borisov’s predecessor, Dmitri Rogozin, said last month that Moscow could participate in negotiations on a possible expansion of the station’s operations only if the US lifts sanctions against Russian space industries.
Former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield tweeted in reaction to Tuesday’s announcement: “Remember Russia’s best game is chess.”
The space station is jointly run by Russia, the US, Europe, Japan and Canada. The first piece was put into orbit in 1998, and the outpost has been continuously inhabited for nearly 22 years. It is used to conduct scientific research in zero gravity and test technology for future trips to the Moon and Mars.
It typically has a crew of seven, who spend months at a time aboard the station as it orbits about 260 miles (420 kilometers) above Earth. Three Russians, three Americans and one Italian are now on board.
The more than $100 billion complex is about the length of a football field and consists of two main sections, one run by Russia, the other by the United States and the other countries. It was not immediately clear what will need to be done on the Russian side of the complex to safely operate the space station after Moscow withdraws.
Former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who spent 340 continuous days aboard the International Space Station in 2015 and 2016, said the Russian statement “could be more forceful,” noting that “after the 2024” is vague and open.
“I think Russia will stay as long as it can afford, since without the ISS they have no human spaceflight program,” he said. “Cooperation with the West also shows some legitimacy to other non-aligned nations and to his own people, which Putin needs as the war in Ukraine has damaged his credibility.”
Kelly said the design of the station would make it difficult, but not impossible, for the remaining nations to operate it if Russia were to withdraw.
Former NASA astronaut Terry Virts, who spent six months on the space station in 2014 and 2015, said a Russian withdrawal would be “a disaster” and would send “a significant statement to the world that they are very untrustworthy.” .
But Virts also said that Putin “has crossed a line and we have to disengage from them on the ISS.”
He said he is particularly disappointed that three of the cosmonauts he flew into space with are now in the Russian parliament, or Duma, supporting the war in Ukraine.
Jordan Bimm, a historian of science at the University of Chicago, said the Russian statement “does not bode well for the future of the ISS,” adding that it “creates a constellation of uncertainties about maintaining of the station that have no easy answers.” .”
“What will ‘leaving’ be like?” he asked. “Will the last cosmonauts simply undock a Soyuz and return to Earth, leaving the Russian-built modules attached? Will they render them inoperable before they leave? Will NASA and its international partners have to negotiate to buy them and continue using them? Until and all these modules can be maintained without Russian knowledge?
Bimm said that running the station after the rescue by the Russians “could be a nightmare depending on how Russia wanted to do it for NASA and its remaining partners.”
If the station’s Russian components were separated or inoperable, the most immediate problem would be how to periodically boost the complex to maintain its orbit, he said. Russian spacecraft arriving at the station with cargo and crew members are used to help align the station and raise its orbit.
Scott Pace, director of George Washington University’s space policy institute, said it also “remains to be seen whether the Russians will, in fact, be able to launch and maintain their own independent station.”
Russia has made no visible effort so far to develop its own space station, and the task looks increasingly daunting now amid the crisis in Ukraine and Western sanctions that have limited Russia’s access to Western technology.
Long before the International Space Station, the Soviets, and then the Russians, had several space stations of their own, including Mir. The US also had Skylab.
John Logsdon, founder and former director of the George Washington University Institute, said NASA has had plenty of time to prepare for Russia’s withdrawal, given the threats emanating from Moscow, and that it would his duty if he hadn’t been thinking. about it for several years.
“An alternative is to declare victory with the station and use that as an excuse to deorbit it and put the money into exploration,” he said, adding: “Its political value has clearly diminished over time.”
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AP aerospace writer Marcia Dunn reported from Cape Canaveral, Florida. AP reporters Matthew Lee and Tracy Brown contributed from Washington.