“You know that we are working within the framework of international cooperation on the International Space Station. We will certainly fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to leave the station after 2024 has already been made,” Borisov told Putin. in the Reading issued by the Kremlin.
“The Russians, just like us, are thinking about what’s next for them. Since we’re planning to transition after 2030 to commercially operated space stations in low Earth orbit, they have a similar plan. And they’re thinking about that transition, too.” We haven’t received any official word from the partner about today’s news, so we’ll talk more about their plan in the future,” Gatens said.
“NASA is committed to the safe operation of the International Space Station through 2030 and is coordinating with our partners,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. NASA has not been informed of either partner’s decisions, although we continue to build future capabilities to ensure our increased presence in low Earth orbit.”
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the news that Russia will withdraw from the International Space Station is “an unfortunate development given the critical scientific work done on the ISS, the valuable professional collaboration that our space agencies have had with over the years, and especially in light of our renewed agreement on spaceflight cooperation.
This is not the first time that Russia has threatened to leave the ISS amid crippling US and European sanctions over the war in Ukraine. Borisov’s predecessor, Dmitry Rogozin, repeatedly threatened to do so before being ousted earlier this month.
Scott Kelly, a former US ISS commander, believes the announcement may be mere posturing.
“I think Russia will stay as long as they can afford it because without the ISS they don’t have a human spaceflight program,” he said.
“Cooperation with the West also shows some legitimacy for other non-aligned nations and for his own people, which Putin needs as the war in Ukraine has damaged his credibility. The design of the ISS makes it difficult for the remaining nations to operate the ISS if Russia or the US will pull out, but not impossible. Also, ‘after 2024’ is vague and open-ended, so I think this could just be more bravado,” he added.
But this most recent The threat has more teeth, and the apparent approval of Putin himself. According to a transcript of a meeting posted on the Kremlin website, Putin said “fine” after Borisov told him that Roscosmos will start building its own space station after 2024.
Former NASA associate administrator Doug Loverro said he believes the threat to withdraw from the ISS is real and possibly a reflection of internal Kremlin politics.
“I think you can read this as a pre-planned follow-up to replace Rogozin. If he had said this, it would seem like just one more bragging statement. But this is the new guy, presumably very close to Putin, saying this a week after taking control. I think it’s real.” Lover said.
Russia’s withdrawal would be a major blow to the ISS, a model of international cooperation for decades.
The news comes less than two weeks after NASA and Roscosmos announced a crew swap or “seat swap” deal that had been in negotiations for more than four years. Beginning in September, two Russian cosmonauts will launch on US spacecraft from Florida, while two US astronauts will travel on Russian rockets into space. It is unclear whether Russia’s decision to withdraw from the ISS after 2024 will affect the crew swap deal.
The ISS, which is a collaboration between the US, Russia, Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency, is divided into two sections: the Russian orbital segment and the American orbital segment. The Biden administration announced in December that it was committing to extend the ISS from 2024 to 2030. But Russia, NASA’s number one partner on the ISS, never signed on.
“The Russian segment cannot function without the electricity on the US side, and the US side cannot function without the propulsion systems that are on the Russian side,” former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman told CNN in February. “So you can’t do an amicable divorce. You can’t do a conscious separation.”
Since then, NASA has been exploring ways to move the space station without the help of the Russian segment. In June, a Cygnus cargo spacecraft demonstrated its ability to raise the station’s orbit. But whether the ISS could survive without the Russians remains an open question.
And the US is making contingency plans in case Russia follows through on its public intention to withdraw after 2024.
“That’s the responsible thing to do,” said NSC communications coordinator John Kirby.
He said the United States remained committed to working with all International Space Station partners but was taking prudent steps to prepare for a potential Russian pullout.
Launched in 2000, the ISS has orbited 227 nautical miles above the Earth with more than 200 astronauts from 19 different countries enjoying periods on board, representing a continuous human presence in space.
Jennifer Hansler and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.