Russia will leave the International Space Station at the end of the year, according to the new head of Russia's space agency.
Boris Yuriov, who was appointed this month to run the state-controlled corporation in charge of the country's space program, said that the decision to leave the station had been made.
During the meeting between Mr. Borisov and Mr. Putin, the declaration was made. Mr. Borisov told Mr. Putin that Russia would live up to its promises. He thinks that by this time we will have a Russian orbital station.
A White House space adviser said this could be bluster from the Russians. Or it could come to fruition.
NASA did not reply immediately.
One of the NASA astronauts said nothing had changed up there.
He said that they haven't heard anything official. The whole crew is required for the mission that we were trained to do up here.
It is not certain whether the station can operate without Russia's help. One section is led by NASA and the other by Russia. Both of the two are connected. Much of the power on the Russian side comes from NASA.
Russian space officials, including Mr. Borisov's predecessor, made statements recently that Russia was planning to leave. They didn't say when or if a decision had been made. NASA officials are confident that Russia will stay in the space station.
Operations on the space station have not been disrupted. In March, Mark Vande Hei came back to Earth in a Russian capsule. NASA and Roscomos just finished an agreement that will give Russian astronauts seats on American-built spaceships in exchange for NASA astronauts getting rides to space.
NASA strongly criticized Russia after they distributed photographs of the three Russian astronauts on the space station holding the flags of the Russian-backed rebels.
Russia has a plan for a space station, but its finances are not good. After the retirement of the U.S. space shuttles, NASA had to buy seats on the Soyuz rockets in order to keep up with the Russians. Two years ago, revenue dried up because of transportation provided by SpaceX. Economic sanctions prevented European and other nations' companies from launching satellites on its rockets, which resulted in Russia losing additional sources of revenue.
The Russian space program is not possible without cooperation with the west, according to a Russian military and space analyst.
Russia and China are both interested in cooperating more with each other in space. It is not possible to reach the space station from Russia's launch pads.
Mr. Luzin said that the idea of cooperating with China was a fiction. The Chinese have been looking at Russia as a potential partner for a long time. Russia can't give anything to China in terms of space.
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