Russia and U.S. to sign treaty prolonging ISS operations until 2024 - Energia corporation president
MOSCOW. Jan 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The United States and Russia have agreed to prolong the operations of the International Space Station (ISS) for the period up to 2024, the president and general designer of Russia's Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, Vitaly Lopota, said.
"We expect to sign this treaty in the near future," he said at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University on Tuesday.
The members of the ISS program earlier signed an agreement on the station's operations for the period up to 2020, he said.
"Our American colleagues and Russia agreed [to extend the station's operations] until 2024," Lopota said.
The U.S. segment onboard the orbiting outpost has already been built, and the construction of Russia's segment will be completed by 2020, he said.
"Unfortunately, budget cuts and belated decisions have caused delays in its creation, but we hope to be able to complete the construction of this one-of-a-kind powerful laboratory by 2018-2020," he added.