Russia will leave the International Space Station after its current commitment expires at the end of 2024, according to the new head of Russia’s space agency.
“The decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made,” said Yuri Borisov, who was appointed this month to run Roscosmos, the country’s space program’s state-controlled corporation.
Mr. Borisov made the announcement during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Borisov assured Mr. Putin that Russia would keep its commitments until 2024. “I believe we will begin to form the Russian orbital station by this time,” he said.
“Good,” Mr. Putin responded.
The International Space Station’s first module was launched in 1998, and astronauts have been living there since 2002. The partnership was built as a symbol of post-Cold War cooperation between the world’s two space superpowers, and it has weathered numerous ups and downs in bilateral relations between the US and Russia.
“This could be Russian bluster,” said Phil Larson, a former White House space adviser during the Obama administration. “It could be revisited or it could happen.”
Kjell Lindgren, one of NASA’s astronauts, said nothing had changed up there while speaking from orbit at a conference about the space station’s research. “Because that is very recent news,” he explained, “we haven’t heard anything officially.” Of course, we were trained to do a mission up here, and that mission requires the entire crew.”
It is unclear whether the station will be able to operate without Russia’s assistance after 2024. The orbiting outpost is divided into two sections, one led by NASA and the other by Russia. The two are inextricably linked. Much of the power on the Russian side is provided by NASA’s solar panels, while the Russians provide propulsion to raise the orbit on a regular basis.
But with tensions between Washington and Moscow rising after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Russian space officials including Dmitry Rogozin, Mr. Borisov’s predecessor, had made declarations in recent months that Russia was planning to leave. But they left ambiguity about when or whether a final decision had been made. NASA officials, who want to extend operations of the space station through 2030, have expressed confidence that Russia would remain.
For the most part, operations on the space station have been unaffected. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei returned to Earth in a Russian Soyuz capsule as planned in March. NASA and Roscomos recently completed an agreement that would give Russian astronauts seats on American-built spacecraft in exchange for NASA astronauts riding on Russian Soyuz rockets to orbit.
However, NASA strongly criticized Russia this month after Roscosmos distributed photographs of three Russian astronauts on the space station holding flags of Russian-backed separatists in two Ukrainian provinces.
Russia has plans to build its own space station, but Roscosmos has been struggling financially for years. Following the retirement of the United States’ space shuttles in 2011, NASA was forced to purchase seats on Soyuz rockets, providing the Russians with a steady source of revenue. That revenue dried up after SpaceX began transporting NASA astronauts two years ago. Russia lost additional revenue sources as a result of economic sanctions that prevented companies from Europe and other countries from launching satellites on its rockets.
“Without cooperation with the West, the Russian space program, including the military component, is impossible,” said Pavel Luzin, a Russian military and space analyst.
Russia is also looking to expand its collaboration with China’s space program, which launched a laboratory module to its Tiangong space station on Sunday. Tiangong, on the other hand, is not in an orbit that can be reached from Russia’s launchpads.
“The prospect of working with China is a fantasy,” Mr. Luzin said. “The Chinese looked at Russia as a potential partner until 2012 and then stopped.” Today, Russia has nothing to offer China in terms of space.”
