Russia announced on Tuesday that it would stop participating in the International Space Station (ISS) “after 2024”, raising the question of its survival, amid Russian-Western tensions due to the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
A model of international cooperation bringing together Europe, Japan, the United States and Russia, the ISS began to be assembled in 1998. Its retirement was planned for 2024, but NASA estimated that it could operate until in 2030.
However, Russia plays a key role in keeping the station in orbit, but some of its ships are affected by Western sanctions due to the assault on Ukraine.
The Russian announcement of wanting to withdraw from the ISS comes ten days after the appointment at the head of the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) of a new boss, Yuri Borissov, who replaced Dmitri Rogozin, known for his abrasive style and outrageous nationalism.
“We are no doubt going to fulfill all our obligations with regard to our partners” from the ISS, declared Mr Borissov, received at the Kremlin by Russian President Vladimir Putin, “but the decision to leave this station after 2024 was socket “.
A few minutes later, NASA said it had not received “official” notification of such a withdrawal after that date. The American agency “is committed to continuing the operations of the International Space Station safely until 2030, and is coordinating with [ses] partners,” NASA boss Bill Nelson said in a statement.
“Their public announcement took us by surprise,” said US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Tuesday, assuring that Washington considered this decision “regrettable” in view of the “valuable collaboration” that Russian space agencies and American maintain for years.
” Hard situation “
Until his appointment at the head of Roscosmos in mid-July, Mr. Borissov, 65, had the portfolio of deputy prime minister in charge of the Russian military-industrial complex, which includes the space sector.
He mentioned, before Mr. Putin, a “difficult situation” in the Russian space sector and indicated that he wanted to provide “above all the space services necessary for the Russian economy”, citing in particular navigation, communication and transmission Datas.
So many areas where Moscow is lagging behind the Americans.
Russian-Western cooperation in the space field has been weighed down by the offensive launched by Russia since February 24 against its Ukrainian neighbor.
The Western sanctions taken in the process partly affect the Russian aerospace industry and risk having effects on the ISS, some supplies of which could be disrupted.
Mr. Rogozin, the previous head of Roscosmos, had already hinted that because of this Russia was going to give up on the idea of extending the life of the ISS until 2030.
He claimed in March that without the Russians, the ISS will crash to Earth because only the Russian side has the means to correct the orbit of the 500-tonne structure.
If Russia has the ambition to relaunch independently in the space race, it has nevertheless been confronted for years with serious problems, in particular endemic corruption which slows down its programs and innovation.