Russia to quit International Space Station after 2024

cbc.ca

10 pointsdjha-skin3 comments

> It was not immediately clear who will operate the Russian side of the station once Moscow pulls out.

Didn't they want to disconnect their segment? At least I remember reading something to that effect, a while ago.

Also the station was purposely designed with the idea that neither could function without the other.

This might be more about declining production resources for maintaining ISS's orbit than anything political. Disconnecting their modules comes at a resource cost to them that they might not be able to afford (not just talking money), so they might just let them go dark. Not sure how well the rest of ISS can function, if at all, without the Russian modules in operation.

> Not sure how well the rest of ISS can function, if at all, without the Russian modules in operation.

I believe the supposedly irreplaceable function of the Russian segment is raising the station via a Progress spacecraft docked to it. Elon Musk claimed SpaceX could do likewise with a Dragon capsule, but I tend to take his statements with a grain of salt, lately.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com