New Russian Space Station
Discussion
It seems the Russians are thinking of starting to build a new, independent space station starting in 2017.
http://en.itar-tass.com/non-political/760137
Starting then I guess it would be fully operational by the time they say they'll be withdrawing from the ISS in 2020.
Given the different orbital inclination planned for the new station I doubt they'd be able to reuse any of the parts they supplied for the ISS, so if they do go ahead and decouple their bits from the ISS they'd probably just be de-orbited in a massive display of pique.
Whether the ISS would then be able to continue is problematical. I'm not sure how critical the Russian modules are to the station or if the US would be able to replace them in time to allow continued use. At the moment the US lacks the capability to launch anything bigger than 28 tonnes to orbit - they'd need SLS for anything bigger
http://en.itar-tass.com/non-political/760137
Starting then I guess it would be fully operational by the time they say they'll be withdrawing from the ISS in 2020.
Given the different orbital inclination planned for the new station I doubt they'd be able to reuse any of the parts they supplied for the ISS, so if they do go ahead and decouple their bits from the ISS they'd probably just be de-orbited in a massive display of pique.
Whether the ISS would then be able to continue is problematical. I'm not sure how critical the Russian modules are to the station or if the US would be able to replace them in time to allow continued use. At the moment the US lacks the capability to launch anything bigger than 28 tonnes to orbit - they'd need SLS for anything bigger
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