The director of Russia's space agency reportedly informed President Vladimir Putin the following, as reported by AFP: "Even though we will, without a doubt, meet all the commitments we have made to our collaborators, the conclusion has been reached that we will be leaving the station after 2024.
This decision was made only a few short weeks after the United States condemned Russian astronauts for using the International Space Station to push political objectives. This criticism came after Russian cosmonauts flew the flags of Ukrainian territory that were held by Russian soldiers. It is fundamentally paradoxical for Russia to utilize the International Space Station to promote its fight against Ukraine since the station's primary mission among the 15 international participating countries is to enhance research and create technology for peaceful causes "as NASA explained.
Recent spacewalks by Russian and European astronauts allowed for the attachment of a robotic arm to the Russian module Nauka, which had just recently arrived at the floating laboratory.
The spokesperson for the State Department, Ned Price, described the announcement that Russia will withdraw from the International Space Station as "an unfortunate development given the critical scientific work that was performed at the ISS, the valuable professional collaboration our space agencies have had over the years, and especially in light of our renewed agreement on space-flight cooperation."
Amid punishing sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union in response to the conflict in Ukraine, this is not the first time that Russia has threatened to depart the International Space Station (ISS). Before being removed from his position earlier this month, Borisov's predecessor, Dmitry Rogozin, made several threats in this direction.
Scott Kelly, a former American commander of the International Space Station, thinks the statement may just be posturing.
I think Russia will remain as long as they can afford to because without ISS they have no human spaceflight program, he added. I believe they will stay as long as they can afford to.
Cooperation with the West also demonstrates some sort of legitimacy to other non-aligned states and to their own people, which is something that Vladimir Putin needs since his credibility has been weakened as a result of the conflict in Ukraine. If either Russia or the United States were to depart from the International Space Station, it would be difficult for the other countries to continue operating it due to the way it was designed, but it would not be impossible. Additionally, beyond 2024 is unspecific and leaves many questions unanswered, leading me to believe that this may be nothing more than empty rhetoric he said.
But this most recent threat is more potent than previous ones, and it seems to have Putin's tacit support. After Borisov informed Putin that Roscosmos would begin construction of its own space station after 2024, Putin reportedly responded with the word "excellent," as indicated by a transcript of a meeting that was published on the website of the Kremlin.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin's declaration of war on Ukraine almost four months ago, relations between the two nuclear powers were at an all-time low. On the ground, the relationship between Roscosmos and NASA has been strained, but in space, the two organizations have collaborated well. In fact, Roscosmos assisted a NASA astronaut in returning to Earth onboard one of its Soyuz spacecraft. After spending a year in orbit, Pyotr Dubrov, Anton Shkaplerov, and Mark Vande He returned to Earth in Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. Dubrov and Shkaplerov were both employed by the Russian Orbit Agency. Yuri Borisov, the Deputy Prime Minister, was chosen to take the position of Dimitry Rogozin, an ardent fan of Vladimir Putin, in the role of Head of the Russian Space Agency. Borisov had previously served as the head of the section in charge of arms.
When it came to working together on the International Space Station, Rogozin and the West were notorious for engaging in heated debates with one another verbally. In April, he made the statement that the International Space Station (ISS) would either die of natural causes or be killed by the donkey.
You must be logged in to post a comment.