MOSCOW: The newly appointed head of Moscow’s space agency informed President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that Russia has decided to leave the International Space Station “after 2024.”
The statement comes as the Kremlin and the West are at odds over Moscow’s military action in Ukraine and numerous rounds of previously unheard-of sanctions against Russia. On the ISS, which has been in space since 1998, Russia and the United States have collaborated together.
The decision to depart this station after 2024 has been made, Yury Borisov, who was named Roscosmos chief in mid-July, informed Putin. “Of course, we will fulfil all our responsibilities to our partners.Borisov continued, calling it the major “priority” of the space programme, “I think that by this time we will start putting together a Russian orbital station.”
