After almost 2 decades of global cooperation in space research through the International Space Station(ISS), Russia has now announced that it would be withdrawing from the $150bn ISS in 2025 and plans to launch its own orbital space station in 2030.

This comes at a time of rising tensions between Russia and the US, with the two powers also accusing each other of militarizing space.

Russia’s exit marks the end of an era for the ISS which has been in space since 1998, and has been known for the exemplary international cooperation between the five participating space agencies that have been running it: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).

As per NASA, 243 people from 19 countries have so far visited the ISS, and the floating laboratory has hosted more than 3,000 research and educational investigations from researchers in 108 countries, carrying out cutting-edge research in various disciplines.

Russia - West Dependency:

From the very early years of building modules of ISS and assembling them in space from 1998, the Russians and their western partners depended on each other. The Russians were reportedly regarded as the masters of modular space station construction.

This dependency increased when Nasa retired the Space Shuttle in 2011, leaving Russian rocket Soyuz as the only passenger vehicle available to take astronauts into orbit — a source of pride for Russia that ended last year when Nasa began to use Elon Musk’s SpaceX system.

Next year, the US is also expected to have another domestic option, as Boeing’s delayed Starliner capsule is expected to become operational.

From Russia’, the ISS collaboration meant much-needed access to western funding for its cash-strapped space agency - Roscosmos. Nasa reportedly spent $3.9bn on Soyuz seats to transport astronauts to the ISS between 2011 and 2019.

Russia's Future in Space Research:

Now, after withdrawing from the ISS in the backdrop of its deteriorating relations with the West, Russia plans to build and manage its own space station, expected to be launched into the orbit by 2030. The space module is reportedly being assembled by the Energia corporation and is set to cost at least $5 billion.

The station will orbit the Earth at a higher latitude, enabling it to better observe the polar regions, especially since Russia plans to develop the Arctic sea route as the ice melts.

The new space station would enable Russia to tide over the challenges cosmonauts currently face due to the aging ISS infrastructure, such as conducting experiments and adapting the latest technology to a hardware architecture that is over two decades old.

On the downside, however, leaving the ISS would also mean that Russian researchers would lose access to a laboratory that has seen over 15 years of engineering and assembly work to build it, and whose research potential is only now truly expected to take off.

Russia plans to manage the space station by itself but has left the door open for other countries to join. Meanwhile, NASA has ruled out retiring the ISS until at least 2028 and may continue to use it after that by upgrading key systems.

China steps into the orbit:

Meanwhile, China is about to launch the first section of a new space station, beginning an orbital construction project that is expected to end in 2022 with an outpost about a quarter of the size of the International Space Station (ISS).

While the exact date hasn’t been announced, China is expected to launch its 18-metre-long core module, called Tianhe, this week. Tianhe will contain living quarters for up to three astronauts, along with the station’s control centre, power, propulsion and life-support systems. It will be followed by two other main modules, both designed to house scientific experiments.

The Chinese Space Station (CSS) will be the 11th crewed space station ever built. It is China’s third station, although the previous two were significantly smaller. The CSS will be slightly larger than Mir, the Soviet space station that preceded the ISS.

"China is interested in demonstrating to the world, and to its own people, that it is a world class player in human spaceflight and cutting edge science," said David Burbach, a professor of national security affairs at the US Naval War College. Burbach spoke in a personal capacity, not on behalf of the US Navy.

There's been very little cooperation between the US and China in space. In 2011, US Congress passed an act to bar NASA from having any bilateral contact with individuals of the Chinese space program because of national security fears.