“Russia Confirms Support for International Space Station until 2028”

Russia will continue to support the International Space Station until 2028, the Russian government has told participating partners. Earlier, the country gave varying and unclear statements about participation in the program. Other countries will remain with the ISS until 2030.

The Russian space agency Roscosmos and the American NASA confirm that the Russian government will remain involved in the International Space Station program until 2028. That involvement was uncertain for a long time last year, because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. After that invasion, Western countries decided to impose sanctions against Russia, after which Russia threatened to stop supporting the ISS. That Russian support is crucial, because only Russia can currently propel the ISS to a higher orbit, if necessary. However, America is experimenting with doing so with American cargo capsules on the American part of the space station.

Russian support was fixed until 2024, but the country did not initially appear to be open to an extension. The country wants to launch its own space station, the Russian Orbital Service Station, or ROSS. Once launched, Russia wants to stop supporting the ISS. However, the ROSS never got beyond the drawing board and it would be years before that space station is in the air. Due to the sanctions, which mainly affect the Russian high-tech and space industry, such a station may never materialize. As a result, it already seemed that Russia would continue to support the ISS until 2028. The Russian government now officially confirms this.

In addition to Russia and NASA, Japan, Canada and ESA continue to support the ISS. All parties except Russia will continue to do so until 2030. After that, the space organizations want to switch to commercial space stations and the International Space Station will probably be said goodbye.