Russia says it's leaving the International Space Station to focus on its own space station project.
As The Washington PostThe Washington Post reports, the decision comes after Russia's space agency Roscomos appointed a new chief and former politician named Yury Borisov. He confirmed Russia's intention to leave the station, stating, "We will fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to leave this station after 2024 has been made."
Russia didn't specify an actual departure date. On the website for Roscosmos, Vladimir Solovyov, flight director for the Russian portion of the ISS, says Russians will remain at the space station until their own version is finished, Reuters reports. That's not expected to happen until 2028, so Russians could have a presence on the ISS for another six years.
NASA intends to keep the ISS operational until 2030 before crashing it into the ocean in 2031.
The news follows a stunt carried out by Russian cosmonauts onboard the ISS early this month that left NASA fuming. Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev, and Sergey Korsakov posed for photos with flags for the self-proclaimed republics located in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine. Those photos were then used for anti-Ukraine propaganda by Roscomos.
NASA and Roscosmos continuing to work together always seemed tenuous due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions the country currently faces. Deciding to start afresh with its own space station could prove difficult considering Russia's restricted access to Western technology. It's unlikely space station modules can be made to work using chips scavenged from dishwashers or a slow Chinese x86 CPU.