Russia intends to withdraw from the International Space Station project after 2024, bringing an end to two decades of space cooperation between the United States and Russia amid the war in Ukraine.
Yury Borisov, who was appointed earlier this month as head of the Russian-state controlled space agency Roscosmos, said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that the country plans to build its own orbiting outpost.
COSMONAUTS ABOARD INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION CELEBRATE ‘LIBERATION’ OF UKRAINIAN TERRITORY
“We will fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to leave this station after 2024 has been made,” Borisov said Tuesday, according to the Washington Post.
Russian officials previously signaled they may withdraw from the project after 2024, citing aging equipment and other factors.
Tensions between the U.S. and Russia have escalated since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, though NASA and Roscosmos made a deal earlier this month for U.S. astronauts to continue catching rides to space on Russian rockets and Russian cosmonauts to ride to the ISS with SpaceX starting this fall.
The agreement maintains that at least one representative from each country will be aboard the outpost.
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The International Space Station program is a partnership among space agencies that first began in 1998 with the U.S., Canada, Japan, and the participating countries of the European Space Agency.
