Russia’s space agency, Roskosmos, will no longer take part in the International Space Station (ISS) project, its director, Dmitri Rogozin, said on Saturday on Russian state TV.
As per reports, the decision still needs to be presented to the Russian government, after which the ISS partners will be informed.
Rogozin said that Russia will still comply with its contractual obligations for a year. His country supplies the ISS with fuel and enables the Station to remain in orbit and avoid collision with space debris.
Russia, Europe, the United States and Japan jointly manage the ISS. Rogozin had already indicated a few weeks ago that he would like to end this collaboration because of the sanctions imposed on Russia after it invaded Ukraine in late February.
For its part, the European Space Agency (ESA) has suspended missions to Mars and the Moon that it was to have conducted together with Roskosmos.