MOSCOW, April 5. /TASS/. Roscosmos mulls an option to continue operating the International Space Station up until 2030, Russian segment mission commander Vladimir Solovyov said Monday.

"We plan to continue the [station’s] operation and scientific research until 2025. This year, we will launch a multipurpose laboratory module for researches in the Russian segment. After that, we plan to wrap up the operations at the ISS, although we do plan to operate it until 2030 and maybe a little bit longer, all the way until the end of its mission," Solovyov said.

The Nauka module will be docked to the Zveda module nadir port. It is designed for the Russian scientific applied research and experiments. Once the module is operational, the Russian segment will obtain additional space to equip working places and cargo storage, as well as deployment of equipment for water and oxygen regeneration. With this module, Russian cosmonauts will receive the second restroom, living quarters for the third crew member and the European-made ERA manipulator that enable a number of operations without spacewalking.