Space station: Russia could decide to suspend its participation in the program

A new series of tweets posted by Dmitry Rogozin, the director of Roscosmos, suggests that Russia may decide to suspend its participation in the International Space Station program. The refusal of the international community to lift the sanctions against Russia explains this decision.

Will the space relations between the historical partners of Roscosmos and Russia reach a point of no return? In a series of tweets published on April 2, Dmitry Rogozin, the director of Roscosmos, once again attacked the partners of the Space Station program, whom he blames for the sanctions imposed on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.

The ” return to normal of the links between the partners of the international space station and other cooperation projects will only be possible once all Western sanctions against Moscow are lifted “, did he declare. Aware that there is very little chance of this happening in the near future, Rogozin specified that he would communicate to the Russian government his proposals with a view to ” the cessation of cooperation on the ISS with the space agencies of the United States, Canada, the European Union and Japan “.

A separation of extreme complexity

However, he did not specify how the end of this cooperation will materialize or whether it will be done in stages. Clarification that, if it is physically impossible — or rather extremely complex — to separate the Russian segment from the rest of the orbital complexthe two segments cannot work without each other in the current station configuration.

If Vladimir Putin decides to suspend Russian participation in the ISS program until the sanctions are lifted, it is a safe bet that the United States could decide, in consultation with the other partners, to think about stopping the operation of the ISS well before the planned date and therefore not to wait until January 2031 to deorbit the Station.

That said, Russia might think twice about exiting the program. By moving away and cutting ties with its historical partners, it could lose the little that remains of its status as a “space power”. A status that she is not ready to regain.