Photo: NASA
The International Space Station is presently the only human-made structure in space that can support life. Its started being assembled in orbit in 1998, and to date, it has been home to more than 250 people from different parts of the world. By the end of the decade, though, it will no longer be the sole destination in orbit.
Having hardware floating around hundreds of miles above the Earth is very expensive business. That’s why the station has been jointly built and operated by the American NASA, Russian Roscosmos, Japanese JAXA, Canadian CSA, and European ESA. This select group is poised to lose one of its founding members real soon.
Rumors of Russia pulling out of the ISS have been around for a while now, but this week Roscosmos’ Dmitry Rogozin confirmed the move, saying it will happen in 2025, according to Vestnik Kavkaza. No further details about the withdrawal were provided, apart from the fact that the Russian module of the ISS will remain where it is and be handed over to whoever will remain on the station after the middle of this decade.
Despite their many problems on Earth, Russia and the U.S. have always been reliable partners in space. They’ve shared the ISS in peace, American astronauts were sent up there by means of Soyuz rockets countless times in the period between the death of the space shuttle program and the rise of the Crew Dragon, and both supported the cost of operation.
Russia is now leaving ISS because it seems it has found enough resources, possibly together with China, to build its own space station. A first module, called Nauka, is already in the works and planned for launch later this summer. According to Rogozin, it will be attached to the ISS before being moved to the new station once work begins on that one.
Rumors of Russia pulling out of the ISS have been around for a while now, but this week Roscosmos’ Dmitry Rogozin confirmed the move, saying it will happen in 2025, according to Vestnik Kavkaza. No further details about the withdrawal were provided, apart from the fact that the Russian module of the ISS will remain where it is and be handed over to whoever will remain on the station after the middle of this decade.
Despite their many problems on Earth, Russia and the U.S. have always been reliable partners in space. They’ve shared the ISS in peace, American astronauts were sent up there by means of Soyuz rockets countless times in the period between the death of the space shuttle program and the rise of the Crew Dragon, and both supported the cost of operation.
Russia is now leaving ISS because it seems it has found enough resources, possibly together with China, to build its own space station. A first module, called Nauka, is already in the works and planned for launch later this summer. According to Rogozin, it will be attached to the ISS before being moved to the new station once work begins on that one.
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