ISS is no longer relevant?

This morning brought another surprise from Roskosmos : according to Kommersant , from 2017 Russia can start building its own space station, actually an alternative to the ISS . The information was obtained from an unnamed source at the Central Scientific and Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering , who explained that such an initiative was a key step in the development of the manned cosmonautics project until 2050. This document is being developed directly by Roscosmos and its specialized institutions.

Disclaimer: in spite of the fact that this news has already managed to disperse across many specialized and not-so sites, I believe that it is worth publishing it here in order to have the opportunity for the community to express its opinion and discuss, so to speak, in a “narrow circle”.

The deployment timeframe for the station is assumed to be within 2017-2019, and, according to the same source, the initial configuration of the station will be formed on the basis of the OKA-T multi-purpose autonomous technology module, and the Soyuz-MS ships must deliver the cargo into orbit and Progress MS . In the future, it is planned to supplement the base station functionality with energy and transformable modules, the use of which is designed for use in the lunar program.


International Space Station, 2011. Source: NASA
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Among the objective reasons that led to the emergence of the need to build our own national space station, above all, are the big risks when launching the Soyuz-MS manned spacecraft from the Vostochny cosmodrome at an inclination of 51.6 degrees (for docking with the ISS) . At the stage of launching the ship into orbit, in case of an emergency situation, the astronauts will have to evacuate abnormally over the open sea. At the same time, when ships are launched into the orbit of a new station, the flight trajectory (inclination 64.8 degrees) will lie above the land, which, according to the authors' logic, will increase the safety of the entire flight.

An additional advantage will be the possibility of using two cosmodromes in the country (Plesetsk and Vostochny) without the need to use the Baikonur located in Kazakhstan. Explaining the advantages of the location of the station in orbit, the source notes that it will have a much more “advantageous” geometrical position for the review of the country’s territory: if now only 5% of the territory of Russia can be observed from the ISS, then the orbit of the new station will make it possible to see up to 90%, and strategically important arctic shelf.


Estimated configuration of the "national" space station. Source: Kommersant .

Speaking about the prospects of the domestic lunar program, it is assumed that the station in the future may become some kind of springboard for the development of the Earth satellite.

Naturally, any project of this scale requires substantial funding, but it is expected that it will be possible to save here by using modules and devices that were planned for launch to the ISS. It is worth remembering here that in May of this year D. Rogozin announced the possible termination of the operation of the ISS by Russia after 2020. However, the final decision will be known by the end of this year.


Orbital complex "Mir", 1998. Source: NASA .

Confirmation or denial of this information may appear after November 24, when Astana will host a meeting of the Russian-Kazakh intergovernmental commission, where a separate meeting may be devoted to the development of domestic manned cosmonautics and the further construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome.