Yuri Borisov hits the ground running. Russia has just announced that they are pulling out of the International Space Station collaboration at the end of 2024. They say that their plan is to build a Russian space station.
It isn't clear whether they will detach the existing Russian modules and make them the core of their proposed new station.
While the Russian modules do supply some vital functions to the station, two and a half years is long enough for the US/Europeans/Japanese to duplicate them.
https://nypost.com/2022/07/26/russia-to-...n-in-2024/
In this photograph, the big horizontal truss with the solar panels is on the US/EU/Jap side as are the large silvery modules on the top half. (There's a Crew Dragon docked at the far top.)
The Russian modules start a ways below the cross, at the module with those diagonal features (antennas?) beneath the circular feature (which I believe is a docked Cygnus supply capsule seen end-on. The two circular solar panels on either side is the give-away).
There's two Soyuz's docked way at the bottom (or a Soyuz and a Progress.)
If the Russian modules depart in 2024, that should free up space to host the new Axiom modules that will form the core of a new Space Station for after the existing ISS is deorbited in 2031.
So the Russian departure shouldn't spell the end of the ISS and might even represent an opportunity.
The real question is how well the Russian modules could survive on their own. They draw most of their electrical power from the huge panels on the US/EU/Jap side.
It isn't clear whether they will detach the existing Russian modules and make them the core of their proposed new station.
While the Russian modules do supply some vital functions to the station, two and a half years is long enough for the US/Europeans/Japanese to duplicate them.
https://nypost.com/2022/07/26/russia-to-...n-in-2024/
In this photograph, the big horizontal truss with the solar panels is on the US/EU/Jap side as are the large silvery modules on the top half. (There's a Crew Dragon docked at the far top.)
The Russian modules start a ways below the cross, at the module with those diagonal features (antennas?) beneath the circular feature (which I believe is a docked Cygnus supply capsule seen end-on. The two circular solar panels on either side is the give-away).
There's two Soyuz's docked way at the bottom (or a Soyuz and a Progress.)
If the Russian modules depart in 2024, that should free up space to host the new Axiom modules that will form the core of a new Space Station for after the existing ISS is deorbited in 2031.
So the Russian departure shouldn't spell the end of the ISS and might even represent an opportunity.
The real question is how well the Russian modules could survive on their own. They draw most of their electrical power from the huge panels on the US/EU/Jap side.