NASA has announced that Russia will remain on the International Space Station (ISS) until 2028, backing away from a plan to leave the low-Earth orbiting laboratory next year. NASA stated that Russia would “support continued station operations” for another five years, while the United States, Japan, Canada and participating countries of the European Space Agency offered a longer commitment through 2030. Last July, the new head of the Russian Space Agency, Roscomos, Yury Borisov, said it would leave the ISS and build its own space laboratory at a cost of $6 billion. The announcement came five months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, leading the United States and the governments of its space partners to respond with financial sanctions. Russia has been one of the leading space agencies since the start of its construction in 1998.
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