Russia to opt out of International Space Station after 2024

Source: The post is based on the article “Russia to opt out of International Space Station after 2024” published in The Hindu on 27th July 2022

What is the News?

Russia has announced that it has decided to quit the International Space Station “after 2024”.

What is the International Space Station(ISS)?

International Space Station(ISS) is a space station located in low Earth orbit. It is a joint project between five space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe) and CSA (Canada).

ISS has been in orbit around Earth since 1998 and has been used to conduct thousands of scientific experiments.

It is approved to operate until 2024, but the US wants to extend that for six more years till 2030.

However, Russia has decided to quit ISS by 2030 as relations have soured since Russia invaded Ukraine and Russia had previously threatened to quit the project because of Western sanctions against it.

What will be the impact of Russia leaving the ISS?

ISS is designed in a way that makes the partners dependent on each other.

For instance, the US side of the ISS provides the power; the Russian side provides the propulsion and keeps the platform from falling to Earth.

If that propulsive capability is withdrawn, the US and its other partners will need to devise other means of periodically boosting the station higher in the sky.