The head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said Thursday that he had agreed with his NASA counterpart to extend operations of the International Space Station (ISS) until 2028.
Roscosmos said earlier this week that its chief, Dmitry Bakanov, had arrived in Texas to meet with NASA’s acting administrator Sean Duffy, marking the first visit to the United States by a Russian space agency head since 2018.
“The conversation went well. We agreed that we will operate the ISS until 2028... and we will work on the issue of de-orbiting it by 2030,” Bakanov was quoted as saying by the state-run TASS news agency.
Bakanov was also expected to meet the Crew-11 mission team, including Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, ahead of their launch aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.
The ISS was established in 1998 as a joint project between Russia, the United States, Europe and Japan. Initially planned to operate until 2024, NASA has said the station could continue functioning through 2030.
Following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, many Western countries cut space partnerships with Roscosmos as part of sweeping sanctions against Moscow.
Russia’s space program, once a point of national pride, has struggled for years with chronic underfunding and recurring corruption scandals.
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