Russia informs NASA of its intention to stay on the International Space Station longer than previously announced
"NASA" confirmed that the asteroid "OR2 1998" will pass only near the Earth.
(archive)
A senior NASA official told Reuters on Wednesday that Russian space officials have told their American counterparts that Moscow wants to continue transporting its astronauts aboard the International Space Station until their orbital site is built and operational.
In addition to comments by a senior Russian space official published on Wednesday, the latest indications are that Russia still has at least six years to end an orbital cooperation with the United States dating back more than two decades.
Yuri Borisov, the newly appointed director general of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, surprised NASA by announcing on Tuesday that Moscow intends to withdraw from the International Space Station partnership "after 2024".
But Kathy Leaders, NASA's chief of space operations, said in an interview that Russian officials told the US space agency later on Tuesday that Roscosmos wanted to stay in the partnership while Russia operates its planned orbital site, called Ross.
"We have not received any indication at any level of work that anything has changed," she told Reuters on Wednesday, noting that NASA's relations with Roscosmos remain "as usual."
The International Space Station is a football field-sized science laboratory in orbit 400 km from Earth and has been continuously occupied for more than two decades under a partnership led by the United States and Russia that also includes Canada, Japan and 11 European countries.
It is one of the latest manifestations of US-Russian cooperation, although its fate has been called into question since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, straining bilateral relations on several fronts as US President Joe Biden's administration imposed economic sanctions on Moscow.
The conflict in Ukraine has also strained the relationship between the Russian Space Agency and the European Space Agency.
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