The Roscosmos-NASA cooperation will soon end as Russia confirmed that they will leave the International Space Station by 2024.
(Photo : Photo credit should read STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Members of the International Space Station (ISS) expedition 54/55, NASA astronaut Scott Tingle (back), Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov (C) and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) (front) take part in the preflight preparation at the Russian leased Kazakh Baikonur cosmodrome on December 05, 2017.
For the past months, Russia and NASA had experienced various conflicts, especially when the former head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin, was the one still in charge.
Although this is the case, NASA and Roscosmos maintained their collaboration. They even signed a new deal recently, allowing Russian cosmonauts to fly on U.S.-based spacecraft.
In exchange, NASA astronauts will be able to ride Russia's advanced Soyuz rocket. But, all good things really do have their ends.
Roscosmos-NASA Cooperation To Official End
According to Tech Crunch's latest report, NASA already announced that it would retire the giant ISS.
(Photo : Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)
In this handout image provided by NASA, the Soyuz rocket with Expedition 33/34 crew members Soyuz Commander Oleg Novitskiy, Flight Engineer Kevin Ford of NASA, and Flight Engineer Evgeny Tarelkin of ROSCOSMOS onboard the TMA-06M spacecraft launches to the International Space Station October 23, 2012 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
However, the original schedule has been moved to 2030, allowing the space union and its other partners to continue using the orbiting lab.
But, Roscosmos has a plan of its own. AP News reported that the Russian space agency plans to leave the space laboratory by 2024.
"The decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made," said Yuri Borisov, the newly appointed Roscosmos leader.
During his announcement, Borisov also highlighted the recent hints made by Roscosmos about their ISS departure.
Once Russia completes its plan to leave the International Space Station, its collaboration with NASA and other space agencies working at the orbiting lab will also end.
As of press time, Roscosmos is firm with its decision to leave the ISS. Meanwhile, ESA and other space agencies will still use the giant space laboratory until its retirement.
Roscosmos' Next Plan
Before Roscosmos leaves the ISS, the Russian space agency's leader says they would still fulfill their obligations.
On the other hand, once the ISS departure is completed, Russia said that they would create their own orbiting laboratory.
This means that Russia will join China in creating its own space station. But, Roscosmos hasn't shared any detail yet regarding its planned orbital laboratory.
Previously, Roscosmos brought back the longest ISS-staying NASA astronaut to Earth.
Recently, Russia-NASA cooperation was suspended due to sanctions imposed by the U.S.
For more news updates about Roscosmos and its upcoming ISS departure, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.
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Written by: Griffin Davis
