Moscow: Russia will start building its national orbital station ahead of the scheduled deorbiting of the International Space Station (ISS) in 2030, a top Russian space official said Monday.
The first module of the Russian Orbital Station (ROS) will be deployed in 2028, CEO of Russia’s Roscosmos State Space Corporation Dmitry Bakanov said in an interview with the state-owned news agency TASS.
Russia marks Space Week, starting Monday, to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the first human space flight by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin April 12, 1961.
“In 2028, according to the latest agreement reached with NASA, we will begin rounding off work on the ISS and complete its deorbiting in 2030. The Russian Orbital Station (ROS) should be launched at exactly this time, becoming a fully-fledged, independent national station in orbit where we will conduct our experiments,” Bakanov said.
He underlined the importance of synchronising the completion of work on the ISS and the deployment of the ROS.
In December 2025, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov announced that Russia had approved a 51.6-degree orbital inclination for the ROS– matching the orbit of the International Space Station.
ISS, a joint project of US NASA, Russian Roscosmos, European ESA, Japan’s JAXA and Canada’s CSA, was built over 27 years after the launch of its first Russian segment, the Zarya, November 20, 1998. It is planned to be deorbited in 2030 and sunk in the Pacific, Roscosmos said.
