Russia invites BRICS partners to build specialized module for new Russian space station - Roscosmos head

HERMANUS (South Africa). July 24 (Interfax) - Russia has invited other BRICS countries to help build a separate specialized module for its planned new space station (ROS), where BRICS member states could conduct scientific experiments, Roscosmos General Director Yury Borisov said.

"I would like to invite BRICS partners to consider taking part in this project and creating, through joint efforts, a fully-fledged module that, as part of the ROS, would allow the BRICS countries to use the capacity of low-Earth orbit to implement their national space programs," Borisov said at a meeting of the BRICS countries' joint committee for cooperation in space.

The Russian orbital station will become the next step in developing manned spaceflight programs, he said.

Borisov said earlier that Russia had invited African countries to join the ROS project and to build national modules for the station. He said later that Russia was open to cooperation with other countries as part of the new space station project alongside African states.

The Energia Rocket and Space Corporation is working on a conceptual design for Russia's new space station. The design should be ready in 2023. The new station's first module is expected to be sent into space in 2027, and cosmonauts may travel to it in 2028. Russia plans to complete the station's construction in 2032.

The new Russian space station should be available by the start of the process for taking the International Space Station (ISS) out of operation, which is set for 2028-2030. The ISS project involves Russia, the United States, the European Space Agency, Canada and Japan.