Rogozin suggests immediately starting creation of new space station in Russia
MOSCOW. May 25 (Interfax) - Head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin has said he believes it is necessary to immediately begin work on a new orbital station.
"Russia, as a country that has always been the leader in creating orbital stations, should immediately start working on creating a new orbital station," Rogozin said on the Komsomolskaya Pravda radio station.
Work on this project is the task of the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, a Roscomos company which was recently headed by Igor Ozar, former general director of Sukhoi, he said.
"What will it be like? Visited or inhabited, international or national: these issues will be decided in the near future. But the technical side of this matter should begin immediately," Rogozin said.
"It's necessary to understand that the International Space Station may exist for another seven, maybe ten years. But there's still structural exhaustion and the assigned operating time of the station and its modules," he said.
The service life of the ISS will expire in 2024. Russia is negotiating its extension until 2030 with its partners.
Rogozin said in mid-May that the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, led by Ozar, who became acting general director at the time, would begin working on the concept for a new orbital station.
"The integration of enterprises of the country's aerospace industry is expected to continue under his leadership. I'm certain that he can achieve the tasks faced by Energia Rocket and Space Corporation: the launch of flight tests of the manned transport spacecraft Oryol in 2023, the administration of cooperation on the creation of a super-heavy class rocket and its elements, and also a whole number of other projects, including the development of the concept for the new orbital station," Rogozin said.
Energia Corporation General Designer Yevgeny Mikrin, who died of coronavirus in May, said earlier it would be reasonable to create a Russian orbital station upon completion of the ISS project and did not rule out an international project.
At present, Russia is planning to attach three new modules to the ISS, namely, the Nauka module, a node module, and a science and energy module. Glavkosmos General Director Dmitry Loskutov said in an interview with Interfax earlier that the attachment of said modules to the ISS's Russian segment will allow it to be independent within three years.
Rogozin said in December 2019 that Russia might give up on plans to launch the node module and the scientific and energy module in favor of building a lunar station.
