MOSCOW, July 29. /TASS/. Russia began seriously thinking about future manned cosmonautics and creating a national orbital station two years ago, Head of the State Space Corporation Roscosmos Yury Borisov said on Friday.
"We began seriously thinking about continuing the piloted program and developing the national orbital station not today but already about two years ago," Borisov told the Rossiya-24 TV Channel.
Specialists predict the snowballing processes of equipment failures aboard the International Space Station (ISS) after 2024, the Roscosmos head said.
"Today the time that our cosmonauts, including American astronauts, spend on looking for possible faults and their removal begins to exceed all reasonable limits," he pointed out, specifying that this situation was affecting scientific research.
Another problem is that it is difficult to reproduce some components for the ISS since cooperation and technologies have changed, Borisov said.
"These technical problems compel us to think about the goal of continuing the manned flight program and creating a Russian orbital station, the Roscosmos chief said.
"This transition - the completion of the work aboard the ISS and the commencement of the operation of the Russian station - should undoubtedly be synchronized," he said.
Russia’s exit from ISS project may take two years
Russia’s withdrawal from the ISS project will not be instant any may take about two years, the Roscosmos chief said.
"All this [Russia’s exit from the ISS project] will be done in strict compliance with our commitments. Moreover, I can say that this process will not be instant. In experts’ estimates, it may stretch out over two years," Borisov said.