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US set to keep operating orbital outpost through 2030, NASA official says

According to NASA ISS Project Manager Joel Montalbano, NASA has "some work to do with the international partners" and added that "the partnerships got some struggles, but NASA is working through those"

NEW YORK, July 26. /TASS/. The United States intends to continue operating the International Space Station (ISS) through 2030, NASA ISS Project Manager Joel Montalbano said at an ISS R&D conference on Tuesday.

The ISS R&D conference is running in Washington on July 25-28.

"We got a decade, you know," Montalbano said, pointing out that the US administration had earlier approved plans for NASA specialists to operate the international orbital outpost through 2030.

"We're going to go the 2030 full up," the head of the American ISS program stressed in a speech broadcast on the conference’s website.

NASA also has "some work to do with the [ISS] international partners," Montalbano said. As the NASA official pointed out, "the partnerships got some struggles as everybody's well aware, but we're working through those."

In particular, he recalled that Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos and NASA signed an integrated crew agreement earlier in July "to fly one SpaceX and one Soyuz per year this year, 23 and 24."

The head of the American ISS program also pointed to NASA’s partnerships with the European, Japanese and Canadian space agencies.

Roscosmos Chief Yury Borisov said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier on Tuesday that a decision on Russia’s exit from the ISS project after 2024 had been made and all the commitments to partners would be fulfilled. The Roscosmos head also said that by that time Russia would begin creating a Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS).

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.

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.

Currently, the agreement stipulates operating the ISS through 2024. In the spring of this year, Roscosmos and the Energia Space Rocket Corporation signed a state contract on working out a conceptual design of the future ROSS.

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