Roskosmos, Russia's space agency, is seeking a continuation of its participation in the International Space Station (ISS) past 2024, an agency official said on October 3.
As relations between the West and Russia have become increasingly tense over Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Roskosmos chief Yury Borissov had said over the summer that Russia would leave the ISS "after 2024," and would seek to build its own space station.
But Sergei Krikalyov, the head of Russia's human space flight programs, told reporters on October 3 that Roskosmos had started "to discuss extending our participation in the ISS program with our government and hope to have permission to continue next year."
Krikalyov has not announced a clear date for that plan. He said that building a new station would not happen quickly, "so probably we will keep flying until we will have any new infrastructure."
He made his remarks in English during a NASA press conference ahead of the October 5 launch of a SpaceX rocket that will carry a Russian cosmonaut, two American astronauts, and a Japanese astronaut to the ISS.
ISS partner countries -- the United States, Russia, Europe, Canada, and Japan -- are currently committed to operate the orbiting laboratory only until 2024, though U.S. officials have already stated they want to continue until 2030.