Roscosmos has completed the development of a draft program for deorbiting the International Space Station (ISS). According to experts, this process will take about two and a half years. This was announced by the Director General of the State Corporation, Dmitry Bakanov.
Bakanov arrived in Houston for negotiations with NASA management. This is the first meeting of the heads of the space agencies of Russia and the United States in eight years. The agenda includes the extension of the ISS operation, the cross-flight program, and the safe flooding of the station in the ocean.
The head of Roscosmos will visit the Lyndon Johnson Space Center, Boeing and SpaceX enterprises, and will also meet with the Crew Dragon crew, which includes Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. Earlier, Bakanov announced that Roscosmos and NASA agreed to support the operation of the ISS at least until 2028, and possibly until 2030.
We plan to discuss the continuation of the cross-flight program, the extension of the International Space Station's operation, as well as the activities of the Russian-American working group on the future safe deorbiting of the ISS and the flooding of the station in a designated area of the ocean.
The ISS has been operating in orbit since 1998. Its mass is 435 tons, and with ships - up to 470 tons. Russia, the USA, Canada, Japan and 10 countries of the European Space Agency participate in the project.
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