The new head of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, confirmed on Tuesday Moscow’s plans to leave the International Space Station (ISS) after 2024.
“We are going to fulfill our obligations to partners, but the decision to leave the ISS after 2024 has already been made,” Borisov said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Borisov, who recently replaced Dmitri Rogozin as head of Roscosmos, added that by then Russia will start building its own orbital station.
Last June, Roscosmos sources assured that Russia will continue to work and participate with its partners in the ISS until it has its own orbital platform, something scheduled for 2025, according to initial plans.
In the past, the Russian government approved Russian participation in the ISS until 2024. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov also reiterated on Tuesday that the decision to abandon the orbital platform was not made today.
The former head of Roscosmos said in June that the resumption of negotiations on extending the service life of the orbital platform would be possible only in the event of the lifting of US sanctions against the Russian space sector.
In early May, the Russian space agency and the Energuia corporation, the main Russian manufacturer of rockets and spacecraft, signed a contract for the design of the sketches of the future Russian orbital station (EOR).
The project will be carried out in two phases: the first foresees the analysis of variants of location and angle of the orbit, the calculation of delivery costs of 1 kilogram of cargo to the station, the siting of the initial configuration of the station and the transfer of spacecraft from the EOR orbit to a lunar orbit.
The second will include the development of the project at the level of sketches and technical tasks of several variants of the future station. It will also include the study of the possibilities of communication with the station, the issues related to the preparation of the crews and the operation in the non-piloted and piloted regimes.
According to the Russian state procurement portal, the amount of the project amounts to 2.7 billion rubles (38.9 million dollars or 37 million euros).
The first module of the new station is scheduled to be put into orbit in 2025, and it would take a decade to complete the EOR configuration.
