There is a Russian presence for a while in the International Space Station. Roscosmos has changed its mind and has promised to continue being part of the project until 2028according to NASA confirmed in the last hours. In this way, it seems that there is an end to a controversy that arose from the Ukrainian War.
Russia’s decision comes just under a year after Dimitry Rogozin announced his country’s final withdrawal from the International Space Station. It was in May 2022, when the then president of the Russian space agency released the news. While months later, in July, it was Yuri Borisov, his successor at the head of Roscosmos, who stated that the Russian exit would take place “after 2024”.
Although the official had not given a specific date, in the aerospace field they took it for granted that the Russian idea was to leave the ISS immediately after 2024. At the time it was said that the sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine had been the turning point for making the decision. However, Borisov assured that, in reality, the determination was based on a matter of survival and not political conflicts.
“There is a concept of metal fatigue, many engineers know what that means. Today, the intensity of various emergencies and hardware failures, microcracks, is increasing. This is a natural process at the end of the life of any product “, explained the leader of Roscosmos about his country’s rush to abandon the International Space Station.
Russia stays on the International Space Station until 2028
Despite this, Russia has now retraced its steps to give the go-ahead to an extension of the link with its partners, to stay longer in the project. According to collect spacenewsRoscosmos announced in recent days through Telegram that it had sent letters to NASA, ESA and the space agencies of Canada and Japan, informing that the Russian government agreed to continue supporting the International Space Station until 2028.
“The ISS program is the largest and most successful international project in the field of space. I am pleased that such a unique laboratory will continue its work and contribute to the realization of humanity’s most daring ideas in space exploration,” he said. Borisov in the statement.
NASA has also celebrated Russia’s stay on the International Space Station beyond 2024. Robyn Gatens, director of the division linked to the ISS, said that extending the time on board will allow “reaping the benefits of more than two decades of experiments and technology demonstrations, as well as continue to materialize even greater discoveries to come.”
It is worth noting that, despite the confirmation of the link until 2028, Russia will spend less time than its partners on the International Space Station. The other agencies involved—the United States, ESA, Japan, and Canada—will remain in orbit until 2030.
A short time ago, it was NASA itself that confirmed what the plan to destroy the International Space Station will be like once it completes its life cycle. In fact, the countries that are part of the project have been polishing the details of how the procedure will be carried out for quite some time. If there are no problems, the ISS will crash in the Pacific Ocean in January 2031.