MOSCOW, August 22. /TASS/. There will be no pauses or disruptions in Russia’s crewed space program during the transition from the ISS to the Russian orbital station (ROS), Roscosmos CEO Yuri Borisov said while visiting to the Cosmonauts Training Center on Monday.
The commander of the cosmonaut team, Oleg Kononenko, during a conversation with Borisov said there should be no interruptions in Russia’s crewed space program during the transition from the ISS to the ROS. He recalled NASA’s own conclusion the team of US astronauts experienced degradation during the transition from the Skylab station to the Space Shuttle program.
"This is a confirmation that such things should not be permitted. The school of crewed flights should not be lost," Borisov said.
He stressed that Russia’s yet-to-be created future orbital station, if composed of add-on replaceable modules, might become "everlasting."
"Replaceable add-on modules can make the space station everlasting, with a new generation of spacecraft employed to service its needs. Also, the Roscosmos chief is certain that although the space station will be a national project, friendly countries may be invited to participate," the Roscosmos news release reads.
Borisov briefed the cosmonauts on the tasks facing the space rocket industry, in particular, the plans for commercialization of the space rocket industry’s services with a special emphasis on research experiments and build-up of Russia’s orbital cluster and transition to mass production of space satellites.
In July, Borisov said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that a decision to quit the ISS project after 2024 had been made, while all obligations to partners would be fulfilled. He added that by the moment of the pullout from the ISS project Russia’s own orbital space station ROS would begin to be formed.