Russia to use International Space Station until 2024

Roscosmos finalizes a plan for its activities up to 2030 which 'provides for the use of the ISS until 2024,' the space agency says

This March 7, 2011 NASA handout image shows a close-up view of the International Space Station is featured in this image photographed by an STS-133 crew member on space shuttle Discovery. NASA/AFP

MOSCOW, Russia Russia will continue using the International Space Station (ISS) in partnership with NASA until 2024, its space agency said, after Moscow had threatened to pull out and stop financing it by 2020.

Roscosmos has finalized a plan for its activities up to 2030 which "provides for the use of the ISS until 2024," the space agency said in a statement late Tuesday, February 24.

It also announced plans to begin manned missions to the moon by 2030 but said its objectives would be adjusted according to financing.

"We are taking into account possible changes in financing and the program will get updated," Yury Koptev, the head of the agency's scientific and technical committee, said.

NASA had already said the aging ISS will remain operational until 2024, but Russia's participation had been in question.

Russia had said it wanted to wind up its role in 2020 and in December delayed a final decision, while deputy defense minster Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the space industry, threatened to "use those resources on other promising space projects."

Russia's decision to postpone its departure from the ISS to 2024 is dictated by the current economic crisis, sparked by low oil prices and Western sanctions over Ukraine, said independent space analyst Vadim Lukashevich.

"All these hopes and dreams have been cancelled by the crisis. There's no money for a new station," Lukashevich told Agence France-Presse.

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Russia to use International Space Station until 2024