The United States and Russia plan to build a new space station together to replace the International Space Station (ISS), which will be shut down in 2024.
The announcement was made Saturday (March 28) in Moscow by the Russian Federal Space Agency or Roscosmos, and is a welcome move despite the geopolitical tensions between Russia and the U.S., especially over events in Ukraine.
"Roscosmos together with NASA will work on the program of a future orbital station," said Igor Komarov, head of Roscosmos, as quoted by Russia's Interfax news agency.
Komarov made the announcement flanked by NASA administrator Charles Bolden at Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan following the successful launch of the Soyuz capsule that took NASA astronaut Scott Kelley and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko to the ISS.
"We agreed that the group of countries taking part in the ISS project will work on the future project of a new orbital station," said Komarov.
He noted the project to build the new station would be "open" and could include not currently involved in the ISS, which is a reference to China.
"The first step is that the ISS will operate until 2024," he added. Russia had threatened to pull out in 2020 but said earlier this year it would keep supporting the ISS until 2024.
Roscosmos and NASA recently agreed to keep operating and financing the ISS until 2024. Roscosmos and NASA "do not rule out that the station's flight could be extended," Komarov pointed out.
"Its term of existence will depend on the implementation of our joint projects," Komarov said.
Earlier, Russia announced plans to build its own space station after 2024 using its modules from the ISS after it's mothballed.
The Russian government, however, indicated this deal isn't ironclad.