Russian cosmonauts to keep working in orbit after national space station is launched

MOSCOW. April 10 (Interfax) - The future Russian space station will be able to operate in automatic mode, but this does not mean that Russian cosmonauts will abandon work in near-Earth orbit, Roscosmos First Deputy General Director Andrei Yelchaninov said in an interview with Interfax.

"Actually, no one [believes] there will be tasks that cannot be accomplished in near-Earth orbit automatically, without human beings in the near future," Yelchaninov said in response to a question about whether the Russian space station could operate without cosmonauts.

Human withdrawal from orbit is tantamount to an exponential loss of competencies: "one year of absence is equal to a five-year lag in manned space exploration," he said.

"So, Russian cosmonauts will absolutely not leave orbit, and we have no doubt that there will always be interesting and relevant work for them to do in space," Yelchaninov said.

As reported earlier, Russia is considering the possible construction of a national station as a replacement for the ISS. The station will be placed on a high-latitude orbit with an inclination of 97-98 degrees, where radiation levels are high. Because of this, cosmonauts will visit the station rather than permanently inhabit it.