For more than two decades, people have been living aboard the International Space Station.
NASA
Earlier this week, Russia indicated that it would not renew the current cooperation agreement for the International Space Station, which expires in 2024, and would then abandon the project. Almost everyone noted that no actual departure date was stated, leaving open the possibility that it would continue its participation without a formal agreement. That seems to be happening now.
Reuters reports that a senior NASA official has indicated that Russia will continue to operate its portion of the ISS until it has its own station in orbit, something currently targeting 2028. Earlier statements by Russian officials indicated that the construction on that station was to begin in 2024, but had not specified an end date. On Wednesday, Roscosmos also posted a video indicating that completion would come in 2028 and that the agency should “continue to operate the ISS” until that date.
Given that it is extremely unlikely that Russia will ever succeed in building a station under severe sanctions, this raises the prospect that Roscosmos will have no alternatives in orbit until after 2030, the year NASA wants to end the occupation of his part of the earth. ISS.
