ISS' Russian segment can run until 2028 - RSC Energia chief

MOSCOW. Feb 6 (Interfax) - The current state of the International Space Station (ISS) allows the use of its Russian segment until 2028 thanks to the huge amount of maintenance work carried out by Russian specialists in past two years, Vladimir Solovyov, general design engineer for manned systems at the Rocket Space Corporation (RSC) Energia, said.

"Over these two years we have been seriously busy with the ISS' Russian segment, having carried out a large amount of repairs and extra fittings. Many various methods were thought up for the ISS' Russian segment's flight to continue and to increase the service life of its onboard systems," Solovyov told journalists on Monday.

"Today our Council of chief design engineers discussed in detail and attentively all issues and work results. We concluded that the ISS Russian segment can continue being used until 2028. Previously, our decision had been [that the segment can be used] until 2024 inclusively," he said.

He said the chairman of Roscosmos' Scientific-Technical Board, Yury Koptev, will hold the board's presidium "around February 16 or later" to discuss the Council's recommendations.

"Eventually, we - the RSC Energia, Roscosmos and the Military-Industrial Commission - will come to a uniform understanding on the extension of the operation period of the ISS Russian segment," Solovyov said.

Earlier on Monday, Roscosmos said that its Council of Chief Designers recommended extending the operation of the Russian segment of the ISS until 2028.