Russia will ditch the International Space Station (ISS) after 2024 and focus on building its own orbital outpost, the country’s newly appointed space chief said on Tuesday.
Yuri Borisov, who was appointed earlier this month to lead the state-controlled space corporation Roscosmos, said during a meeting with Vladimir Putin that Russia would fulfill its obligations to its ISS partners before leaving the project.
“The decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made,” Borissov said.
His statement confirmed previous declarations by Russian space officials about Moscow’s intention to leave the station after 2024.
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This comes amid rising tensions between Russia and the West over the invasion of Ukraine.
Despite the rift, NASA and Roscosmos struck a deal earlier this month for astronauts to continue riding on Russian rockets and for Russian cosmonauts to catch elevators to the ISS with private US rocket company SpaceX from the fall.
The agreement ensures that the ISS will always have at least one American and one Russian on board to keep both sides of the outpost running smoothly, according to NASA and Russian officials.
The exchange had long been in the works and was finalized despite friction over the war in Ukraine in a sign of continued cooperation between Russia and the US in space.
A senior NASA official told Reuters on Tuesday that Russia had not communicated its intention to withdraw from the ISS.
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