The resources of the International Space Station are almost depleted, it is "approaching the finish of its existence". And, as stated by the head of "Roskosmos" Yuri Borisov, Russia is starting to create its own station in space under these conditions.
After a meeting on the development of the rocket and space industry, held by President Vladimir Putin, Borisov gave an extensive interview to the "Russia 24" channel. There he shared future plans and the current situation.
In short, cooperation with the ISS remains a priority for "Roskosmos" in the coming years. However, maintaining the unique space station in working condition with foreign colleagues is becoming increasingly difficult.
The International Space Station is approaching the end of its existence. We have extended operation of the Russian segment by a government decision until 2028, but unfortunately, it has already exceeded all its planned lifespan. 80% of the Russian equipment functioning inside the ISS is now beyond its warranty period.
Head of "Roskosmos" Yuri Borisov
However, Russia is also beginning active work on the creation of a national orbital station from 2024. The support of President Vladimir Putin for this has already been received.
It is very important that these works begin on a full scale next year. Otherwise, if we delay this issue, we will not be able to create the future station, we will have a break [in research]. All industry specialists were very worried, hoping, they asked the president these questions at a meeting with young scientists and astronauts. The President has supported us, and there will be a Russian orbital station!
Head of "Roskosmos" Yuri Borisov
The development of the scientific experimental module is already underway, the first module will be launched to the ISS in two years. Within eight years, by 2032, the Russian orbital station will be ready.
It will differ from the ISS not only in technical content but also in polar orbit, which will allow us to overview the entire Russian territory. From the ISS, astronauts can currently see only 15% of Russian land. But this is not enough for the development of science and technology, and for security. It is assumed that, in particular, the new station will be able to survey the strategically important Northern Sea Route 16 times a day.
Work will also be carried out on the development of conveyor satellite construction. The Russian orbital group of satellites makes up only 2.5% of the total number of satellites in the world, due to the fact that Russian satellites are built slowly and have a short lifespan.
Nowadays the trend in the world is towards building satellites on a cheaper component base. This allows, when several satellites of the group go out of service, to replace them with new ones without loss of service quality.
To be honest, we were not ready for this. Today, all satellite construction companies of the industry are theoretically capable of producing about forty satellites a year. Standard assembly of a spacecraft takes about eighteen to thirty months at the enterprise. Of course, at such a pace, it is simply impossible to create multisatellite groups. Therefore, it is necessary to radically change the model of the industry for producing these satellites, to move to conveyor production.
Head of "Roskosmos" Yuri Borisov
However, the satellite builders themselves are more optimistic and already say that they are ready to put satellite production on stream.
Thus, it recently became known that the first satellite of the new Russian group "Marathon-IoT" will be sent to orbit already by the end of 2023. In total, 264 spacecraft should join the group over several years.
By 2030, Russia intends to launch almost 400 new domestic communication satellites. Each of the directions - transport, Internet of things, broadband Internet access, and mobile satellite service - will have its own orbits.