Russia threatened to leave the International Space Station in a presumed response to the rising hostilities between the Putin-led country and the West.
On Tuesday, the newly appointed chief of Roscosmos – the Russian state space agency – made it clear that a decision to leave the ISS for good has already been made.
“I think that by that time we will start putting together a Russian orbital station,” Yury Borisov said as he confirmed Russia will leave the ISS in 2024.
“Of course, we will fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to leave this station after 2024 has been made.”
In a meeting with Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin, Borisov also reassured the president that the space agency will focus on raising the bar “to provide the Russian economy with the necessary space services” in terms of communication, navigation, and data transmission.
While Borisov seemed determined to further distance Russia from the rest of the world by leaving the ISS, NASA claims they haven’t yet received an official separation notice.
“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,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, DailyMail.com reported.
Meanwhile, astronaut teams on the ground as well as in space suggested that “everybody is working together” and that they “haven’t heard anything officially” about Russian astronauts leaving the ranks.
The ISS was launched jointly by Roscosmos and NASA back in 1998. The rare move involving the cooperation of the two quarreling nations initially seemed to be a huge success but the relations between the space agencies have deteriorated in recent years especially amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.
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