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Russia is building its own space station

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Russia has announced it has begun building a space station of its own, and has plans to withdraw from the International Space Station (ISS) in 2025, BBC News reports. The ISS was launched by the United States and Russia in 1998 and has been a showcase for international cooperation.

In a statement, Russia’s Roscosmos space agency said the aging condition of the ISS technical modules poses a risk to its cosmonauts. “We can’t risk the lives [of our cosmonauts], Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov told Russian media.“The situation that today is connected to the structure and the metal getting old, it can lead to irreversible consequences – to catastrophe. We mustn’t let that happen.”

Russia’s contract with the ISS runs out in 2024, and it is already working on its own space station. In a video post on Telegram, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said: “the first core module of the new Russian orbital station is in the works.” Expected to be ready for launch in 2025, the Russian space station is being built by the Energia corporation and is reportedly set to cost at least $5bn, BBC News said.

In any event, Borisov said the Russians would give their ISS international partners “fair warning of our departure from the ISS in 2025.”