Russia Now Wants to Build Its Own Space Station Before Leaving the ISS

The ambitious timeline suggests that Russia may be staying on board the ISS at least until after 2024. Although NASA seems to believe that Roscosmos won’t leave the ISS until 2028, the space agency still had a backup plan should the Russian space agency suddenly decide to pull out of their longstanding partnership in Earth orbit. It’s also not clear how Roscosmos plans to pull off the construction of its space station while under heavy international sanctions imposed on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine that are sure to affect its budget for space endeavors.

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NASA and Roscosmos have had a longstanding partnership aboard the ISS for more than two decades. Since the space station launched in 1998, there have been at least one NASA astronaut, and one Roscosmos cosmonaut on board at the same time. But the Russian space agency has been acting up recently in retaliation to the sanctions imposed on Russia. The Russian space agency posted photos on its official Telegram channel in July of three cosmonauts holding up the flags of Russian-backed regions in Ukraine to show support of the ongoing invasion. Roscosmos former head Dmitry Rogozin also commanded the cosmonauts on board the ISS to discontinue their work on a European robotic arm, challenging the European Space Agency’s Director General Josef Aschbacher to “fly to space” and do it himself.

But with Rogozin gone, Roscosmos’ approach has been less aggressive, although the space agency is still not promising to stay on board the ISS until the space station plunges to its death in 2030. And with a model of ROSS now on display, Roscosmos seems to be longing for its independence from its international counterparts in space.

More: U.S. Officials Are Not Happy About Russia’s Supposed ‘Stalker’ Satellite