Russia plans to create new space station core by 2030

(Reuters) – Russia aims to create the four-module core of its planned new orbital space station by 2030, its space agency Roscosmos said on Tuesday.

The head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, signed the schedule with the directors of the 19 companies involved in the creation of the new station.

The agency confirmed plans to launch an initial science and energy module in 2027. It said three more modules would be added by 2030 and two more between 2031 and 2033.

So far, Russia has partnered with the United States and other countries on the International Space Station, one of the few areas where it still collaborates closely with the US, given the dire state of relations since the invasion of Ukraine.

With the ISS approaching the end of its operational life, Moscow announced plans in 2022 to abandon the project and build its own station. It initially said it would abandon the ISS after 2024, but told its partners last year that it would extend its participation until 2028.

In addition to the design and manufacturing of the modules, Roscomos said the schedule approved by Borisov includes flight tests of a new-generation manned spacecraft and the construction of rockets and ground infrastructure.

The new station will allow Russia “to solve problems of scientific and technological development, national economy and national security that are not available on the Russian segment of the ISS due to technological limitations and the terms of international agreements,” he said.

Russia has been proud of its space program since the Cold War, when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to travel to space in 1961. But it suffered a major setback last year with the failure of its first lunar mission in 47 years, when their uncrewed spacecraft went out of control and crashed into the surface of the moon.

(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan, editing by Timothy Heritage)