Russia to quit International Space Station ‘after 2024’

Russia has decided to quit the International Space Station "after 2024", the newly-appointed chief of Moscow's space agency told President Vladimir Putin yesterday.

Until now space exploration was one of the few areas where cooperation between Russia and the United States and its allies had not been wrecked by tensions over Ukraine and elsewhere.

"Of course, we will fulfil all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to leave this station after 2024 has been made," Yury Borisov, who was appointed Roscosmos chief in mid-July, told Putin.

"I think that by this time we will start putting together a Russian orbital station," Borisov added, calling it the space programme's main "priority".

"Good," Putin replied in comments released by the Kremlin.