Russia, it appears, is interested in continuing its joint venture with the United States, Japan, Europe, and Canada, in regards to the future of the International Space station. In 2015, Russia announced that it would just support the ISS mission till 2024 only and not more than that.
However, now reports reveal that the Roscosmos' general director Igor Komarov is interested in the possibility of continuing the partnership beyond 2028. "We are prepared to talk about it," said Komarov in a press meeting at U.S. Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, as per Reuters.
The ISS is an orbiting engineer and science laboratory in the space. It has been staffed for all time with a team containing cosmonauts and astronauts since November 2000. The $100 billion labs are put 250 miles on Earth and are constantly circling the planet. Komarov might be interested in the cooperation and extending the partnership with ISS to 2028, however, he shared that before venturing past the ISS circle, people need to resolve numerous medical and technical issues back home.
He also stated that the Russian-U.S. partnership for space exploration has survived throughout the years in spite of continued political pressures between the two countries. Indeed, even in 1975, at the stature of the Cold War, the Russian Soyuz capsule and an American Apollo spacecraft docked together on the Earth's orbit.
In the event that the partnership with the United States sours, Russia has a plan B up its sleeve. In 2016, Russia disclosed that it would detach some of its modules from ISS and use them to construct another independent outpost in the orbit. NASA spends generally $3 billion every year on the ISS and brings out various scientific studies and experiments.
NASA depends on Russia for its Soyuz rockets, which ship astronauts to the ISS, and also take them back to Earth. But, NASA is in discussion with private space companies, such as Boeing and SpaceX. The space agency is hopeful that these companies would be able to raise a Russian Soyuz equivalent, which can be used for transportation by 2024.
Roscosmos, then again, expects to lift off three scientific modules to the ISS by 2020 as detailed by Russian daily paper Pravda. A similar report reveals that by 2024, Roscosmos' chief analyst Andrei Lonin plans to create a Russian space station, like ISS, with a possible joint effort with China.
