Russia will not leave the International Space Station (ISS) in 2024. Russia said it would still participate in the international space project.
After the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine last year, various parties urged the country led by Vladimir Putin to leave the ISS. Russian space officials at that time also responded and will depart from the station in 2024.
But apparently, based on the latest agreement, Russia will continue to participate in the ISS program for the next five years.
"Russia has confirmed it will support continued station operations until 2028," NASA officials wrote in a statement as quoted by Space, Sunday (30/4/2023).
Not only Russia, other ISS partners, such as the European Space Agency (ESA), Canada and Japan, also announced contracts to extend cooperation so that their astronauts can still stay on the ISS until 2030.
This agreement is in line with the renewal of cooperation between the various parties involved, including NASA in its commitment to the orbiting laboratory until the end of its operational life.
For information, the ISS is a joint project involving five space agencies, namely NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, CSA, and ESA. The ownership and use of these stations is determined by agreements and agreements between governments.
The ISS first orbited in 1998 and has been continuously occupied by crews of astronauts from various countries in rotation since November 2000 until now.
During that time, 266 people from 20 different countries have visited and stayed on the ISS. There are more than 3,300 experiments carried out under vacuum conditions.