Russia leaving the International Space Station in 2024 and will focus on building its own – TechCrunch

Russia has announced that it will officially end its international collaboration with NASA around operation of the International Space Station (ISS) as of 2024, according to the AP. Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, also announced plans to construct its own orbital station, which build and operate independently of the U.S.

The ISS was originally intended to be decommissioned sometime around 2024, but NASSA shifted its official retirement date to 2030. Roscosmos and NASA set an agreement earlier in July to still continue to exchange rides for American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts aboard each other’s respective launch vehicles — Russia’s Soyuz and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon — on four upcoming missions to rotate the station’s crew.

Tensions around the longstanding U.S./Russia collaboration on the ISS began to mount when Russia invaded Ukraine in February, with public statements from former Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin seeming to threaten an end to cooperation as one potential outcome of U.S. condemnation of Russia’s unprovoked aggression.