Russia ends NASA collaboration, set to leave the ISS by 2024

For many decades, the International Space Station has been a symbol of humanity putting aside its differences to travel together, hand in hand, into space.

Projects like the Artemis Program seem to herald a new age of space exploration, something that humanity has neglected for many years.

However, space isn't exactly immune to politics.
Russia announced in the summer of 2022 that it would leave the ISS by 2024.

This would put an end to the decades-long collaboration between NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian state space agency.

The announcement was made by Yuri Borisov, the head of Roscosmos, who stated in a press release that “we will fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made”.

Launched in 1998, the International Space Station was at the time a symbol of multinational partnership, operated by the United States, Canada, Russia, Japan, and the European Union.

Image: Nasa

Back in February, NASA stated that the International Space Station would remain in operation until 2030. Then it would be crashed into a remote part of the Pacific Ocean.

Image: NASA

Robyn Gatens, head of NASA, commented to CNN that Roscosmos had not received an official statement about Russia’s departure from the International Space Station.

“The Russians, just like us, are thinking ahead to what's next for them. As we are planning a transition after 2030 to commercially operated space stations in low earth orbit, they have a similar plan”, said the NASA director.

CNN points out that Russia had previously threatened to leave the ISS before, when Western countries started to sanction Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price describes Russia’s decision as “an unfortunate development given the critical scientific work performed at the ISS”.

Image: NASA

Scott Kelly, an American former ISS commander interviewed by CNN, considered Russia leaving the ISS a bluff. “The design of the ISS makes it difficult for the remaining nations to operate the ISS if either Russia or the US was to withdraw but not impossible”, Scott comments.

What is true is that this would put many years of solidarity and cooperation for space exploration to an end.

For the second half of the 20th century, space exploration was defined by the Space Race, the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union to demonstrate superiority through developments in aerospace technology.

In October 1957, the Soviet Union managed to launch Sputnik-1 to orbit, it was the first artificial satellite in space. The United States had previously announced its first satellite ready for 1958.

The race intensified in 1961 when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to leave Earth’s orbit.

In 1969, the United States managed to successfully send the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon and back. Neil Armstrong gave one giant leap to mankind.

The Space Race came to an end in 1975 when the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to cooperate together to develop mutually beneficial projects such as the International Space Stations.

With the diplomatic relations between the United States and the Russian Federation cooling off in the past years, one can’t help but wonder if we’re entering into a new Cold War.

Let's hope humanity will set their differences aside and