MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/. Roscosmos and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have coordinated proposed timeframes for completing the operation of the International Space Station (ISS), chief executive of the Russian state space corporation Yury Borisov said.
"In order to avoid any interruptions in the manned program, we have synchronized the expected completion dates for the ISS, which we are discussing with our American colleagues," Borisov told Rossiya-24 in an interview.
There are plans to start conducting manned flights to the new Russian Orbital Station (ROS) about the same time when Russia exits the ISS program, he added. "We are planning to launch manned space flights [to the ROS] starting in 2028," the Roscosmos head explained.
In November 2022, Borisov said in an interview with TASS that further participation in the ISS project would depend on the technical condition of the Russian segment, the date when the ROS will be up and running, the beginning of flights to it by Russian cosmonauts and a number of other factors. So far, Russia has officially announced plans to continue its participation in the ISS project until 2028. In early December, Boris said that the final scenario for completing the use of the station will be coordinated with the incoming US administration of President-elect Donald Trump.
The ISS has been in orbit since November 20, 1998. It is multi-modular and has a mass of about 435 tons. With docked spacecraft the mass can reach 470 tons. The participants in this project are Russia, Canada, the United States, Japan and ten member states of the European Space Agency (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland).