It now looks like the Russians will continue to participate in the International Space Station (ISS) past 2024. As you may recall, on July 21 it was reported that Yuri Borisov, the director of Russia’s national space agency (Rosaviacosmos), said that Russia would pull out of the ISS in 2024. This caused a minor stir in the West because the station depends on the Zvezda Service Module for a lot of important stuff, including living quarters, life support systems, electrical power distribution, data processing systems, flight control systems and propulsion systems.
Zvezda is the core module for the station, and without it it’s unclear what the United States and its international partners would do to keep the station operating another few years. By now, NASA should have had contingency plans on the off chance the Russians might decide to quit the program earlier than the envisioned 2028 or 2030. But none exist, mainly because the US lacks the heavy launch capability needed to carry a replacement module to low Earth orbit (LEO)—the kind once provided by the Space Shuttle fleet.
But not to worry, it seems the Russians are having second thoughts...