MOSCOW, July 26. /TASS/. The resolution to quit the International Space Station (ISS) project after 2024 was made a long time ago, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
"This decision was made long ago," he told TASS when asked whether the resolution on Russia’s withdrawal from the ISS that has been announced by Roscosmos’ new CEO, Yury Borisov, was agreed on with President Vladimir Putin.
In April 2021, Borisov, who was Russia’s deputy prime minister at that time, said that the ISS was not in good condition and Russia may look into creating its own space station. The Energia Rocket and Space Corporation was tasked with readying the launch of the first module of a would-be Russian station by 2025. It will be a research and energy module that was originally planned to be launched to the ISS.
Roscosmos’ former CEO, Dmitry Rogozin, said in late February that it was quite difficult financially to implement these two projects: the ISS and the new station, simultaneously. He suggested that it would be expedient to ensure a certain "overlapping" period when both stations would be operating. Under the current agreement, the ISS will be operational until 2024. In the spring, the Energia corporation signed a state contract for the development of a concept design of Russia’s future station.