Russia announces its departure from the International Space Station after 2024

It is undoubtedly the end of an era in space exploration. Russia plans to leave the International Space Station, the ISS, which it initiated with the United States. “Of course, we will undoubtedly fulfill all our obligations towards our partners, but the decision to leave this station after 2024 has been taken.“, said Yuri Borissov, head of Roscosmos, the agency Russian space.

For now, three reasons can be put forward to explain this announcement. First, the Ukrainian conflict, while all the other countries that administer the ISS have given their support to Ukraine. Another possible reason, the arrival of SpaceX, billionaire Elon Musk. In 2020, Russia had indeed lost the monopoly of sending into space. Finally, the Russian space sector has been plagued for several years by corruption and a lack of innovation. Russia now claims to focus all its efforts on building its own space station.