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Russia's newly appointed space chief has announced the country will opt out of the International Space Station (ISS) after 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost.
- The statement confirms Russia's earlier declarations about its intention to leave the ISS
- After 2024, Russia's focus will turn to building its own orbiting outpost
- They will continue to work with ISS partners before leaving the project
In a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, Yuri Borisov, who leads the state-controlled space corporation Roscosmos, said Russia will fulfil its obligations to other partners at the ISS before it leaves the project.
"Of course, we will fulfil all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to leave this station after 2024 has been made," Mr Borisov said.
"I think that by this time we will start putting together a Russian orbital station."
Mr Borisov's statement reaffirmed previous declarations by Russian space officials about Moscow's intention to leave the space outpost after 2024.
It comes amid soaring tensions between Russia and the West over the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.
Despite the rift, NASA and Roscosmos made a deal earlier this month for astronauts to continue riding Russian rockets and for Russian cosmonauts to catch lifts to the ISS with SpaceX beginning early next year.
However NASA was caught off guard with the announcement from Mr Borisov.
NASA space station director Robyn Gatens said her Russian counterparts had not communicated any such intent to end the two-decade-old orbital partnership, as required by the station's intergovernmental agreement.
Mr Borisov said the space industry is in a "difficult situation".
He said that moving forward he would seek "to raise the bar, and first of all, to provide the Russian economy with the necessary space services", pointing to navigation, communication, and data transmission, among other things.
Sending the first man into space in 1961 and launching the first satellite four years earlier are among key accomplishments of the Soviet space programme and remain a major source of national pride in Russia.
But experts say the Russian space agency remains a shadow of its former self and has in recent years suffered a series of setbacks including corruption scandals and the loss of a number of satellites and other spacecraft.
AP