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ISS not effective enough in current situation — Roscosmos CEO

It might be possible to orbit the first module of Russian orbiting station in 2026, Dmitry Rogozin revealed

Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin Sergei Savostyanov/TASS

Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin

© Sergei Savostyanov/TASS

MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/. The International Space Station is not effective enough in the current geopolitical situation, the CEO of Roscosmos corporation, Dmitry Rogozin said at a meeting with members of the LDPR faction in the State Duma.

"I do not believe that the ISS effective enough in the current situation. But there is one problem - we have not yet deployed a Russian orbital service station that might be several times more effective," Rogozin said in a video released by the LDPR's press-service.

He hopes that a future orbiting station will make it possible to repair and replace equipment in flight. In fact, it will serve as an eternal support platform.

"We have begun the sketch design phase already. We will need several years more. If we work hard enough, it might be possible to orbit the first module in 2026," Rogozin said, adding that a gap between the operation of the ISS and the launch of a new station would be undesirable. A pause several years long would result in the loss of skills in training crews and conducting research.

On February 24, US President Joe Biden said the sanctions the US and its allies introduced over the situation in Ukraine would hit Russia’s high-tech sector and its space program. He warned that the US would cut its high-tech export to Russia by half, thus hitting the space program.

For its part the EU imposed sanctions on the space rocket center Progress. The European Space Agency later said the chances of launching the Russian-European Mars exploration mission ExoMars were very slim due to the anti-Russian sanctions over Ukraine. Also, the ESA said it was considering the possibility of using European rockets for orbiting satellites that according to original plans were to be launched by Russia’s Soyuz rockets. Germany has turned off its telescope installed on the space observatory Spektr-RG, which is a joint project with Russia. Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin said the Russian segment of the ISS was curtailing cooperation with German counterparts and would make the scheduled experiments on its own.

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