Roscosmos head Yuri Borisov told Russian President Vladimir Putin that “the decision to leave this station after 2024 has been made.”
“You know that we work within the framework of international cooperation in the International Space Station. We will undoubtedly fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made,” Borissov told Putin in a report issued by the Kremlin.
But Robin Gaitens, director of the International Space Station for NASA, said NASA had not received an official communication from Russia about the decision to leave the ISS.
“The Russians, like us, are considering what lies ahead for them. As we plan to transition after 2030 to commercially operated space stations in low Earth orbit, they have a similar plan. So, they are also thinking about this transition. We have not received any official information from the partner regarding the news today, so we will talk more about their plan going forward,” 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 notified of the decisions of either partner, although we continue to build future capabilities to ensure our primary presence in low Earth orbit.”
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the news that Russia would withdraw from the International Space Station was “an unfortunate development, given the critical scientific work done on the ISS, the valuable professional collaboration our space agencies have had over the years, and especially in light of our renewed spaceflight cooperation agreement.”
This is not the first time Russia has threatened to quit the ICC amid crippling US and European sanctions over the war in Ukraine. Borissov’s predecessor, Dmitry Rogozin, repeatedly threatened to do so before he was ousted earlier this month.
But this latest threat has more teeth and the apparent approval of Putin himself. According to a transcript of a meeting posted on the Kremlin’s website, Putin said “okay” after Borisov told him that Roscosmos would begin building its own space station after 2024.
Russia’s withdrawal would be a major blow to the ICC, 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 under negotiation for more than four years. Starting in September, two Russian cosmonauts will take off on American spacecraft from Florida, while two American astronauts will ride Russian rockets into space. It is unclear whether Russia’s decision to withdraw from the ISS after 2024 will affect the crew exchange agreement.
The ISS, which is a joint effort between the United States, 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 had committed to extending the ISS from 2024 to 2030. But Russia — NASA’s number one ISS partner — never signed on.
“The Russian segment cannot function without the electricity on the American side, and the American 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 uncoupling.”
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 is still an open question.
And the US is making contingency plans in case Russia follows through on its publicly stated intention to withdraw after 2024.
“It’s the responsible thing to do,” said NSC Communications Coordinator John Kirby.
He said the U.S. remains committed to working with all partners on the International Space Station, but is taking reasonable steps to prepare for a possible Russian withdrawal.
Launched in 2000, the ISS has orbited 227 nautical miles above Earth with more than 200 astronauts from 19 different countries enjoying their time on board – representing a continuous human presence in space.
China, whose astronauts have long been excluded from the ISS, launched the second module of its space station this week. Although not as large as the ISS, China’s space station is expected to be fully operational by the end of this year.
Jennifer Hansler and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.
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