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International Space Station
Photo: AFP/ NASA
Russia plans to exit the International Space Station after 2024, the Russian space agency Roskosmos announced in July.
"The decision to exit this station after 2024 has been made," said Yuri Borissov, the new Roscosmos boss appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, a few weeks ago.
The German astronaut Matthias Maurer, on the other hand, considers this announced withdrawal to be unlikely.
"You will not get out," he said in an interview with the German Press Agency.
One has to read between the lines with such Russian communications.
“After 2024 doesn’t mean 1/1/2025.
That can also be in 2030,” said Maurer.
According to the Esa astronaut, Roscosmos has now given in.
"We have heard that they are still there." That is also plausible, after all, Russia only completed its part of the ISS last year.
"Russia is only now in a position to conduct proper research there." Borisov also emphasized in July that Russia would fulfill its obligations to its partners.
The ISS is a joint project of the USA, Canada, Japan, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia.
It is divided into a Russian and a US module.
There have long been discussions about the future of the space station, which weighs around 440 tons.
Originally, the operation was only planned until 2020.
But a few years ago, the participating nations decided to keep the station running until at least 2024 - technically, operation until 2030 would even be possible.
Russia wants to build its own space station
But after the start of the war in Ukraine, the political tensions also spread to the partner countries.
Former Roskosmos boss Dmitry Rogozin had repeatedly questioned the cooperation.
Finally, his successor announced the exit from the project and announced the construction of his own space station - a corresponding model has now been presented.
Regardless of the differences, operations in space continue: According to current plans, there will be a Soyuz launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to the ISS next Wednesday with NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and the Russian cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Sergei Prokopyev.
joe/dpa
