Russia to Quit Int'l Space Station in 2025 - Reports

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/04/19/russia-to-quit-intl-space-station-in-2025-reports-a73643

Updated: one hour ago

Russia will withdraw from the International Space Station (ISS) project in 2025 and notify its foreign partners of the decision, state media cited a senior government official as saying.

The ISS, which was launched in 1998 by the Russian and U.S. space agencies, has been a rare area of cooperation between Moscow and Washington amid sharply deteriorating relations. But the ISS, which has been continuously occupied for more than 20 years, is expected to be retired around 2030.

-snip-

But in previously untelevised remarks that aired Sunday on the state-run Rossia 1 broadcaster, Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov disclosed plans to “honestly notify [foreign partners] of our withdrawal from the ISS starting in 2025.”

“We need a technical inspection at the station to avoid any risks in the event of an emergency,” Borisov’s office told the state-run TASS news agency.

“We will make a decision based on the results and honestly notify our partners,” it added.

-/snip-

[haele]

1. The ISS has been a money-maker for Russia since US shuttles stopped.

Looks as if Russia is deciding to focus more on cheaper and short-term "results-driven" local expansion (expanding to Soviet era borders, military hardware development) than investing in science and space program that may lead to cost effective resource mining that can save the earth's future...

But who am I kidding? Putin and his buddies don't care about a future, they care about being rich and powerful gangsters.

Haele

[hunter]

2. I'd like to see it kept as a museum, not dropped into the atmosphere to burn up.

Maybe we could install some electric engines on it and boost it into a higher orbit using power from the existing solar panels.

Then someday we could tow it to a space city, build a big bubble around it, and create an international institution and tourist attraction comparable to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

[Arthur_Frain]

3. Love the idea

But show me the money.

Maybe Musk could take this on as a pet project for his R&D on the space X stuff.

[catsudon]

4. it's time for a new one

iss is getting old, time for MIR 2