Russia Discusses Participation in the International Space Station After 2024

An internal discussion is currently happening with Russia as they decide if they will still be continuing to participate in the International Space Station (ISS) after 2024, as reported by TechCrunch.

Human Space Programs Head for Roscosmos Sergei Krikalev stated that no final decision had been made by the Russian space agency regarding the extension of staying in the ISS despite the country's previous statement.

Last July, Russia announced its departure from the station after 2024, as revealed by Roscosmos Head Yur Borisov. Instead, they will build their own orbital station. However, they took it back right away as they will be extending its participation for four more years, Reuters reported.

Russia's Reasons for Staying

Russia's decision to stay is because of the future plans and continuation on the space station together with several astronauts from NASA, ESA, JAXA, and more. Adding to this is that Russia's station may still not be ready until 2025.

NASA Space Operations Chief Kathy Lueders confirmed via The Sun that officials from Russia wish to keep the partnership until their own station is ready. No firm dates were given by Russia regarding the plans.

Krikalev stated during a NASA media briefing with the Crew-5 Mission, "We know that it's not going to happen very quickly, so probably we will keep flying on the ISS until we have any new infrastructure that will allow us to do continuous human presence on low Earth orbit,"

The International Space Station is operated in collaboration between space agencies of different countries, which include the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan, and Europe. According to the original plan, ISS will operate until 2030.

Crew-5 Mission

This mission will take place tomorrow, October 5th, as SpaceX will launch four crews to the ISS. Space reported that part of the team would include NASA's Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japanese Spaceflyer Koichi Wakata , and cosmonaut Anna Kikina. This will be the first time a cosmonaut will fly on a Crew Dragon spacecraft of SpaceX.

Last month, American astronaut Francisco Rubo also launched to the ISS accompanied by a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Both of the launches are part of the exchange deal between the United States and Russia.

Krikalev added that "This type of exchange will increase the robustness of our program and we will continue this practice to make our program more reliable."

Both Russia and the US have tensions with each other since the invasion of Ukraine in February. However, all of the plans that were part of the deal were still conducted despite the tensions.

As per NASA Manager of the ISS Program Joel Montalbano, staff from America are still working with Roscosmos at Mission Control in Moscow, Russia. He added that the communication between the two countries remained constant.

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Written by Inno Flores