Future Russian Space Station Will Involve International Cooperation - Roscosmos

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER (Sputnik) - Russia's future space station will involve cooperation with other space agencies, Roscosmos Human Space Flight Programs Executive Director Sergei Krikalev said on Wednesday.

"We are thinking about building a new space station... We don't know yet how it's going to be built, what kind of modules we will have, but I'm sure that we will stay in international partnership when we fly ISS [International Space Station] and future station fusions infrastructure is also going to be with international partnership," Krikalev said during a press conference following the launch of NASA's Crew-5 mission.

Roscosmos has said it plans to begin building a Russian orbital space station by 2026.

Krikalev said no final decision has been made on the preliminary design of the new space station, which will officially be called the Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS).

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in earlier remarks that he expects Russia to remain an ISS partner until 2030.

Roscosmos also seeks to reduce tensions with NASA that arose under former Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin, Roscosmos Human Space Flight Programs Executive Director Sergei Krikalev said during a press conference on Wednesday.

"The answer is yes," Krikalev said when asked if the new Roscosmos leadership wants to ease tensions with NASA that emerged under Rogozin.

Rogozin criticized the United States for imposing Ukraine-related sanctions on Russia and signaled it could potentially block cooperation between the United States and Russia on the International Space Station (ISS).

President Joe Biden previously said that US sanctions would impact Russia's space program.

In July, Russian President Vladimir Putin released Rogozin from the post of Roscosmos CEO, his successor is the former deputy prime minister in charge of the defense industry, Yuri Borisov.

On Monday, Krikalev said Roscosmos is discussing its future participation in the ISS program with the Russian government and hopes to have permission to continue next year. Roscosmos had previously said it plans to depart the ISS program after 2024.

In July, Roscosmos and NASA signed an agreement on integrated flights of cosmonauts and astronauts to the ISS. As part of the agreement, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket with a Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft was launched from Baikonur to the ISS on September 21 carrying a crew including Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin as well as NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio. The only female cosmonaut at Roscosmos, Ann Kikina, is currently flying with the Crew-5 team to the ISS aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft named Endurance.