Russia to quit International Space Station

Russia’s space agency Roscosmos has announced it will end its participation in the International Space Station program by 2024

Roscosmos chief Yuri Borisov said that Russia would fulfil its obligations to its partners on the ISS before leaving the project.

Russia had previously said it would end its contributions to the joint multinational space endeavour until sanctions were lifted by western nations.

After 2024 Russia wants to focus on its own Russian space orbital platform.

The ISS is one of the few examples where, until now, science largely trumped geopolitics and the international condemnation of Russia and its invasion of Ukraine.

The space station is jointly run by the space agencies of Russia, the U.S., Europe, Japan and Canada.

The station has been orbiting earth since 1998 when the first piece was put in place.

Since then it’s had a human presence on board for nearly 22 years with US astronauts and Russian cosmonauts working side by side.

Earlier this month, Russia and the USA signed an agreement to allow Russian cosmonauts to travel to the station on US spacecraft and vice versa.

Dr Leroy Chiao, a former ISS commander and retired astronaut says Russia might be bluffing.

“I think this is posturing by the Russians. They don’t have the money to build their own station and it would take several years to do it. They’ve got nothing else if they go this route”

Dr Leroy Chiao, former ISS commander and retired US astronaut – to the BBC

He said in an interview with the BBC that he thinks Russia will ultimately decide not to leave the project.

The ISS is used to conduct scientific research in zero gravity and test out equipment for future space journeys.

It was designed with the deliberate intention of making US and Russian space operations on the orbital platform largely dependent on each other.

The news that Russia wants to end its collaboration with an international space program is not entirely without precedent.

The European Space Agency and Roscosmos ended their cooperation on the ExoMars Mission some weeks ago.

The ExoMars mission would have scouted for sings of life on Mars using a European rover.