MOSCOW, September 6. /TASS/. Member states of the International Space Station (ISS) project have welcomed plans to extend the station’s operation as well as confirmed readiness to continue cooperation on promoting research onboard the orbital laboratory, a statement by Roscosmos said following a meeting of the International Space Station Multilateral Coordination Board (MCB).
"The board members welcomed the commitments by the United States, Japan, Canada, and member states of ESA (European Space Agency) to extend the International Space Station operations through 2030, as well as Russia’s commitment to extend operations through 2028. The members confirmed the readiness of the International Space Station partnership to continue working together to advance microgravity research on this unique orbiting laboratory and to ensure the safe operation of the space station," the state space corporation said.
The meeting was attended by representatives from space agencies of Canada, Russia, the US, Japan and the European Space Agency. The board emphasized "the role of the International Space Station in providing an environment to develop and test technologies and engineering solutions in support of long-term space exploration, as well as serving as a proving ground for an increase in the commercialization of low Earth orbit."
Last November, Roscosmos CEO Yury Borisov said in an interview with TASS that the length of participation in the ISS project would depend on the operational status of the Russian segment, the timeline of launching the Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS), the commencement of space flights to the national orbiter and a number of other factors. The Roscosmos scientific-technical council held a meeting in late February attended by the management of the space corporation, its enterprises and organizations of the Russian Academy of Sciences acting as contractors under the ISS project. The meeting approved a decision on extending the service life of the ISS Russian segment to 2028 and began preparing documents for submitting relevant proposals to the government.
On April 12, Borisov told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Russian government had extended work on the ISS until 2028.
The ISS has been in orbit since November 20, 1998. It consists of several modules and weighs around 435 tons, or even up to 470 tons when spacecraft are docked to it. A total of 14 countries are participating in the ISS project: Russia, Canada, the United States, Japan and ten ESA member states, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, France, Sweden and Switzerland.