MOSCOW, July 26. /TASS/. Russia will focus on creating a Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS) as its top priority in manned cosmonautics, Roscosmos Chief Yury Borisov said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
"We will continue the piloted program in compliance with the plans approved. The main focus will be on creating a Russian orbital station," Borisov said, stressing that Roscosmos would also pay attention to scientific space research.
Then-Deputy Prime Minister Borisov announced in April 2021 that the condition of the International Space Station (ISS) left much to be desired and Russia might focus on creating its own orbital outpost. Russia’s Energia Space Rocket Corporation was assigned the task of making the first basic module for a new Russian orbital station ready in 2025. The new module will be based on a research and power unit that was previously intended for launch to the International Space Station in 2024.
The Roscosmos Scientific and Technical Council recommended that the work on creating the technical project of Russia’s new orbital station be included in the 2025 federal space program. In late February this year, then-Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin said that it would be hard to simultaneously implement the ISS project and the project of building a new national orbital outpost due to financial constraints. He also said it was necessary to stipulate some "overlapping period" when the ISS and the ROSS would operate simultaneously for some time.