Russia is ready to leave the International Space Station (Iss), it will happen”after 2024“, according to what Roscosmos (the Russian space agency) declared on its Telegram channel and to the Interfax news agency. This is because the creation of a new national orbital station. The communication came after the meeting between the head of Roscosmos, Yury Borisov, and the heads of all the agency’s activities. But above all after the conversation between Borisov himself and President Vladimir Putin.
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Moscow had already announced, or hinted, that it would left prematurely the collaboration built in over 20 years of permanence on the orbiting laboratory due to the sanctions introduced after the invasion of Ukraine, but without indicating a date. They simply stated that they would give the necessary notice: “We will inform our partners with one year’s notice” declared the then head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin. In the meantime, there has been a turnover, Borisov, a former deputy prime minister, is now in charge of space operations. It seems not because Putin was unhappy with the work of Rogozin, who since February 24 has led a ferocious media and propaganda campaign against the West.
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However, nothing is official yet, a high-level source told Reuters that no communication has reached NASA, the main partner on the ISS. Asked about this, the American astronaut Kjell Lindgren confirmed that they “have not heard anything official” and that at the moment “working all together” on the station remains the priority.
Following the announcement, Roscosmos has published on Telegram a video simulation of what the new Russian orbital station will look like. Adding at the bottom of the message “Let’s go!”, The cry of Jurij Gagarin at the take-off of the Vostok 1 that would take him into orbit as the first man in space, in 1961.