Russia May Continue ISS Work Beyond 2020

Russia may continue working at the International Space Station (ISS) beyond 2020, Izvestia newspaper reported Monday.

“The issue of Russia’s participation at the ISS after 2020 remains open, but there is a 90-percent chance that the state’s leadership will agree to participate in the project further,” the paper wrote citing a source at Russia’s Federal Space Agency Roscosmos.

Russian space enterprises continue to make new modules for the space station according to the schedule, the paper said.

NASA earlier said it had to freeze cooperation with Russian space researchers following Washington’s sanctions against Russia over the crisis in Ukraine, prompting Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin to suggest Americans would now have to “get their astronauts to the ISS [International Space Station] using a trampoline.”

Later, Rogozin announced Moscow was not planning to use the International Space Station after 2020 and would instead re-focus its funding on more promising new space projects. In response, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden vowed the US and Russia would continue to cooperate on space missions and keep each other informed.

Source: RIA Novosti