End of Russian space bravado: We may yet see pleas to Americans not to scuttle ISS
When, after the start of the "full-scale invasion," they were kicked out of all international scientific and technical projects except the International Space Station (ISS), and were forbidden to deal with them commercially, they started w-a-i-l-i-n-g.
And immediately, childishly, resorted to blackmail – "Oh really, then we'll just leave the ISS, and it will crash to Earth" – since the engines of the Progress cargo ships will no longer maintain the ISS's altitude and perform other maneuvers.
Then they scratched their heads – "But where will we fly to then?"
As the head of Roscosmos explained: "A break in the manned program could cost us dearly – we lose competencies."
And also: "Every Russian has a certain legal pride in our past achievements at the genetic level. This obliges us to do a lot today."
So they started to "back down" – that is, they supposedly keep their word and will not abandon the ISS (because there is nowhere to go) until the end of 2024, but they will pour their space nonsense into the eyes of their so-called partners from the ISS whenever they can. And indeed, the Russian segment of the ISS has finally become a branch of their "madhouse" on Earth.
Then, in 2022, in Moscovia, they sang, to the annoyance of all enemies, about creating their own coolest space station. They know how to do it – quickly make models out of "papier-mâché," show them off at all Kremlin propaganda shows, and also sketched something like drawings on paper, presenting it as a ready sketch-project.
But no matter how good you are at drawing, even Elon Musk can't make anything ready for space from scratch in two years.
Although the swamps never stopped threatening that they would leave the ISS after 2024, they were still forced to officially sign up for the extension of support for part of the ISS – but only until 2028.
On their part, the ISS partners think in decades, and the desire to set the ISS operation deadline to 2030 inclusive was announced even before the Kremlin's antics.
So by the end of 2024, two American cargo spacecrafts were tested to support the flight altitude and maneuverability of the ISS (several times Cygnus from Northrop Grumman and once Cargo Dragon from SpaceX).
If those who see themselves only at the forefront of the entire planet are not worried about what will happen to the ISS in 2030, then NASA decided to award the American company SpaceX a contract of about $850 million to create a separate tug instead of using the three Russian Progress ships that will not be available at that time.
And what about the realities with Roscosmos's "model" plans? Let's give the floor to its head:
"... everything will depend on resource provision, the Ministry of Finance always has problems, this is natural. But we will somehow find a dialogue with them..."
"... In 2030, it (the Russian station) will already be visited, inhabited, and cosmonauts can arrive and conduct experiments. And the completion will be in 2032..."
"... Of course, the plans together with American colleagues are to de-orbit (the ISS) some time around 2030. The final scenario will probably still be clarified, including with the arrival of the new NASA administration. At least with the old administration, we discussed that this is the horizon of 2030."
It seems that we will witness how the Russkis, who have already missed a multimillion-dollar contract, will beg on their knees for the "malicious opponents" not to de-orbit the ISS after 2030.