The announcement comes as NASA and Roscosmos are laying plans to transition to other orbital habitats
Russia will opt out of the International Space Station program after 2024, the new chief of Russia’s federal space agency Roscosmos said Tuesday .
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson issued a statement on Tuesday stating that the agency is “committed to the safe operation of the International Space Station through 2030, and is coordinating with our partners.” Nelson added that “NASA has not been made aware of decisions from any of the partners, though we are continuing to build future capabilities to assure our major presence in low-Earth orbit.”
Retired NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who flew to the International Space Station on three of his four spaceflights and spent close to a year aboard the orbiting lab on his final mission, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that he believes the Russians “will try to stay as long as they can afford it” because the ISS program “gives Putin needed credibility domestically and internationally.” In his opinion, Russia’s announcement is “more vague, open-ended bluster.
The space station’s design means that the U.S. and Russian segments of the station are interdependent, and it’s not clear to what extent the U.S. could maintain its facilities should Russia leave the partnership. The ISS partner agencies are currently only committed to operating the lab until 2024, and NASA plans to begin shifting toward commercial space stations at some point following the end of the ISS program.
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