While tensions between the U.S. and Russia remain at their highest levels in decades here on earth, the countries will continue to work as partners on the International Space Station for at least another five years.
Russia has agreed to continue participating in the ISS through at least 2028, NASA announced Thursday. That comes roughly a year after the head of Russia’s space program threatened to stop working with other countries on the station, as sanctions and other penalties for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine went into effect.
“The space station is one of the most complex international collaborations ever attempted,” NASA noted in a statement. “It was designed to be interdependent, relies on contributions from across the partnership to function, and no partner currently has the capability to operate the space station without the other.”
The United States, Japan, Canada, and the participating countries in the ESA (European Space Agency) have confirmed they will support continued space station operations through 2030. The ISS is set to be retired by 2031.
Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees Russia’s space agency, last year defiantly said the U.S. would have to use broomsticks to fly to space after Russia said it would stop supplying rocket engines to U.S. companies. NASA, at the time, downplayed the comments, with administrator Bill Nelson saying “That’s just Dmitry Rogozin. He spouts off every now and then. But at the end of the day, he’s worked with us.”
NASA had been working on contingency plans in case Russia left the facility, including possibly withdrawing its astronauts from the ISS, before the deal was struck. Thursday, though, the agency opted for a more optimistic forward-looking outlook.
“The International Space Station is an incredible partnership with a common goal to advance science and exploration,” said Robyn Gatens, director of the International Space Station division at NASA headquarters in Washington, in a statement. “Extending our time aboard this amazing platform allows us to reap the benefits of more than two decades of experiments and technology demonstrations, as well as continue to materialize even greater discovery to come.”