ISS, goodbye. Hello, ROSS station!

Yuri Borisov, the new head of the Roscosmos state corporation, who replaced Dmitry Rogozin in this post, began his work with a big policy statement: after 2024, our country will leave the International Space Station (ISS) project in order to begin implementing its own Russian orbital service from 2025 stations (ROSS).

The statement said that ROSS will be a visiting station, meaning that crews will work on board from time to time, as needed.

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The ROSS station is, first of all, needed to carry out national security tasks in space, based on the current political situation. For obvious reasons, the ISS was unsuitable for this task.

ROSS is ideal. in reality, everything will be much more modest

In addition, given its age and deterioration, the ISS should cease to exist in 2025. Experts, however, claim that the old woman can creak in orbit until 2030, however, remembering the last years of the life of the Soviet/Russian Mir station, the cosmonauts had to constantly patch up and fight for the survivability of their space home, rather than deal with issues of science and space security. At the same time, space explorers were forced to burn emergency oxygen candles to maintain a normal atmosphere inside the worn-out orbital vehicle.

latest photo of the ISS

Judging by the reaction of the West, Borisov’s statement about the changed plans of Roscosmos took the “partners” by surprise.

The NASA agency tried to present the situation as if nothing was known yet, and in general, they did not receive the corresponding official paper from Roscosmos.

There is despondency among specialists: the participation of Americans in the project is, of course, important, but since the liquidation of the Space Shuttle program, the ISS has actually rested on the shoulders of Russia.

Experts cite the policy of sanctions as one of the reasons for Russia’s loss of interest in the ISS.

Despite statements by the American leadership that sanctions will not be imposed on cooperation with Russia in space, they have de facto blocked Roscosmos’ access to dual-use technologies, which all sorts of enemies have repeatedly itched about.

But international cooperation in space is a double-edged sword. It wasn't just the Americans who had to share their technological secrets with us. We also had to share something important with them. Take, for example, the regular supply of rocket engines for American carriers, the sale of thin-sheet titanium and other materials that the Americans have never learned to make on their own.

Now, after the introduction of sanctions, the Americans want to receive Russian high-tech and services unilaterally, transferring Roscosmos from the rank of a partner to the rank of service personnel for NASA.

_{In addition to sanctions, there are also objective indications for Russia to withdraw from the ISS project.}

The station, if we count its age from the launch of the first module, is already 22 years old. The Zarya module is, in fact, the core of its Russian segment, and its deterioration is already approaching a critical level.

On the 20th of April, Vladimir Solovyov (pilot-cosmonaut, program manager of the Russian segment of the ISS) spoke at the Russian Academy of Sciences, who outlined the picture as follows: yes, Zarya is working, it is being repaired, something is being changed, but almost all of it is 80% complete. has developed a warranty resource.

You can recall the high-profile story of an air leak in the transition chamber of the Zvezda module. Cracks formed in the chamber, and the nature of these cracks is still not clear. There are certain thoughts about their occurrence, but no one knows the exact reasons. Two crews looked for these cracks and sealed the transition chamber with a special compound to eliminate the leak, but it’s clear to all that the equipment, which is 80% worn out, will have to be constantly patched to the detriment of scientific programs.

The experience of emergency operation of the Mir station turned out to be invaluable, but repeating it on the ISS would be an unjustified luxury for Roscosomos.

_{That is why there has long been talk in Roscosmos and Russian scientific circles about the need to create a national orbital station.}

The articles of American observers also show jealousy that the Russians might leave to develop the Chinese orbital station, especially since the PRC has long been inviting Roscosmos to cooperate.

Americans' concerns are understandable. With Russia's withdrawal from the project, the ISS actually ceases its activities. All flights to the ISS, bypassing the Soyuz spacecraft, become risky: the American spacecraft created in recent years must be thoroughly tested before they can replace the Soyuz, as reliable as a Kalashnikov assault rifle. By the time the same trust appears in the “dragons” and other devices, the wreckage of the ISS will have long been resting on the bottom of the World Ocean.

But that's okay. Let the Americans sort out their problems themselves. What are we losing and what pitfalls await the domestic space program?

First of all, Russian experts claim that Roscosmos, having left the ISS, will fulfill some of our obligations.

Firstly, the Russian segment of the ISS is needed to flood the station. No one will do this except us, since the deorbiting is carried out by the Progress spacecraft.

Secondly, and this was stated in Roscosmos, RSC Energia will remain the main contractor for NASA to ensure the operation of the station: fuel delivery, orbit correction, space debris evasion maneuvers, etc.

In general, it turns out that Roscosmos is designing and building a small visited orbital station in a short time, and RSC Energia is building the ISS in the interests of the Americans until 2030, thereby making money from ROSS.

_{A number of limitations in the operation of the station are already visible.}

For example, American relay satellites cover almost the entire surface of the Earth and the ISS orbit, providing uninterrupted communication with the Mission Control Center and Houston.

Our orbital constellation of Luch satellites, to put it mildly, leaves much to be desired, covering only part of the Earth's surface. And if you consider that, through the efforts of the Gaidars and Chubais, Russia in the “holy nineties” also lost the Cosmoflot - excellent surface ships for space communications and telemetry, bearing the names of famous Soviet cosmonauts and designers, vast zones of silence await ROSS in orbit.

_{Thus, the new head of Roscosmos will have to solve this problem in the very near future.}

Experts note that the new visited station of Roscosmos will be inferior in scope to the Russian segment of the ISS and will be a simple configuration of one large module and two smaller ones: a scientific and energy module developed for the ISS and modified for new tasks, an airlock chamber and a hub module . The project is not too ambitious, but it fully meets the new requirements, guaranteeing the operation of the station in orbit for 10 years.

more likely type of ROSS

Of course, we would like the ROSS to have at least three additional modules and an unpressurized platform so that the cosmonauts have room to turn around, but, apparently, we will not be able to afford such a luxury in this decade. Too expensive.

The reason the ISS turned out to be so large and spacious is that the resources and minds of many countries around the world worked for it.

However, if Roscosmos, headed by Yuri Borisov, manages to complete the space program of this decade, then we will definitely complete the construction of a national orbital platform - Russia’s outpost for deep space exploration - in the next decade. Must be pulled out.

Roscosmos plans to use the small, visited ROSS station to implement very ambitious projects, such as the construction and testing of the Zeus nuclear space tug, which opens the way for manned flights to other planets.

It is also noted that the experience of international cooperation in space within the BRICS framework will be tested on the basis of ROSS.

_{But all this will remain in the realm of lyricism and Manilovism if the leadership of the country, and not just Roscosmos, does not remember that personnel decide everything - and without competent, interested people, the plans of the authorities will remain only on paper.}

And it seems necessary to start with a sharp increase in salaries and social guarantees for workers in the space industry, as well as with the abolition of fees for higher education, especially technical and natural education. Well, the brain drain abroad needs to be dealt with long ago, otherwise we will remember about space from Soviet documentaries.