KAPSEL BAY /Republic of Crimea/, June 11. /TASS/. The orbital station that Russia plans to launch after 2025 will feature a modular design, and may serve as a site for finally assembling and launching spacecraft into deep space, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Aleksandr Sergeyev said on the sidelines of the Tavrida forum of young arts and cultural workers on Friday.

"The ISS [the International Space Station] was made in the paradigm of the 1970s-1980s, when it was designed. This time has passed, and a new view has evolved on the layout and the tasks that the station must cope with, and this relates not only to experiments and some observations," Russia’s top scientist pointed out.

"This also means that this should be some sort of a service station to gear towards cosmonautics, carry out the repairs of some spaceships that have broken down or, perhaps, it may serve as some hub to orbit separate fragments of a future spacecraft for a deep space flight because the launch of such spaceships from Earth is costly and requires some super-heavy carriers," Sergeyev said.

The future space station is expected to accommodate a special research module to engage in science and up-to-date monitoring, he specified. "It will be possible to outfit this station with new units and compartments, and assemble it in the form of some building kit," Sergeyev noted.

Russia has already "carried out research into the new technologies that must be introduced there, and how these technologies must be tested on the ground," the top scientist said, adding that the project of a new orbital outpost was prompted by the condition of the ISS.

"According to some estimates, even the cost of maintaining our activity aboard the ISS can be comparable to that of creating a new orbital station. Therefore, the question arose about whether we should speed up the project of creating the ROSS [the Russian orbital service station]. Of course, much will depend on the economic situation in the country… [creating a new station] is a very costly effort," the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences said. If a decision is made soon "on Russia’s exit from the ISS," the project can be implemented after 2025, he added.

About the project

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov announced in April that the condition of the International Space Station left much to be desired, and Russia might focus on creating its own orbital outpost. Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin said on April 20 that Russia’s Energia Space Rocket Corporation had been assigned the task of making the first basic module for a new Russian orbital station ready in 2025. Work on it is already underway, he said. Rogozin also posted a video of the first module under construction: this will be a research and power unit that was previously intended for launch to the International Space Station in 2024.

Russia’s future space station will have an inclination of 97-98 degrees. It will fly over the entire planet every two days, and will be above the Arctic every one and a half hours, which is important for providing support to the Northern Sea Route. Russia will launch the new space station’s conceptual design before the end of summer.