MOSCOW, July 23. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian scientists have supported the extension of the International Space Station (ISS) operation until 2024, Director of the Institute of Medico-Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences Igor Ushakov told ITAR-TASS in an interview on Wednesday.

“The scientific community will support this decision,” he said.

According to Ushakov, there are major plans for science support of flights to the ISS. New ISS units are being prepared for launch, in particular, the laboratory, node and scientific-energy modules. “And if these modules are commissioned by 2017-2018, then, of course, the extension of the resource until 2024 is desirable, in order to work on the new modules not for one or two, but for four or five years,” Ushakov said.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin previously said that Russia did not see commercial sense in participating in the ISS project after 2020, because this “consumes” more than one-third of the budget of Russia’s Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos).