MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/. The International Space Station (ISS) will cease to exist as it is today after 2030, CEO of Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos Yury Borisov said on Friday.

"By a resolution from the government, the work of the International Space Station, the Russian segment, has been extended through 2028. But, regrettably, we have to state that most likely the station will cease to exist in its present format after 2030: it will either be flooded in a controlled mode or re-designed for other purposes," he said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to Borisov, this puts the future of Russia’s manned program in question. "We think stopping the manned program is not an option, because that would mean losing the serious expertise we have and we have the world’s biggest potential in this sphere," he stressed.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told Reuters in April that he hoped cooperation between the United States and Russia on the ISS project would continue until 2030. NASA’s budget request for the 2024 financial year (from October 1. 2023 to September 30, 2024), which was made public in March, mentions funding the ISS until at least 2030.

On April 12, Borisov told Putin that the Russian government had extended the ISS’ operation until 2028. Later, the Roscosmos chief notified ISS partners about this decision.

The ISS project includes 14 countries: Russia, Canada, the United States, Japan, and ten members of the European Space Agency - Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, France, Sweden, and Switzerland.