MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. Roscosmos jointly with their US partners have drafted a technical document on de-orbiting the International Space Station (ISS), the Russian state space corporation told TASS.

"A little while ago, we drafted technical documentation jointly with our US colleagues to de-orbit the ISS, or rather, the technicalities of de-orbiting," Roscosmos said.

Among other things, the draft document envisages using Russia’s upgraded Progress cargo spacecraft. However, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has notified Roscosmos about a tender to develop a special tug to bring the ISS down.

Various scenarios for de-orbiting the ISS, involving both sides’ capabilities, are being explored, Roscosmos specified, with working discussions and talks involving the ISS management currently being held. Legal and financial aspects of cooperation are also being considered, the Russian space agency said.

Meanwhile, no official decision to de-orbit the ISS in 2030-2031 has yet been made by the countries operating the station, Roscosmos added.

In late April, the NASA chief, Bill Nelson, told Reuters in an interview that he expected Russian-US cooperation on the ISS project to continue until 2030. The US budget request for the 2024 fiscal year (the period between October 1, 2023 and September 30, 2024) envisaged NASA’s allocation for the ISS to run until at least 2030.

The ISS project involves 14 countries, namely Canada, Japan, Russia, and the United States as well as 10 members of the European Space Agency - Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.