UPI 8/12/2021
A plan to use a Russian spacecraft to deorbit the International Space Station as early as 2028 remains in question because the United States does not know that nation's intentions for using the orbiting laboratory, NASA and other parties involved in the decision say.
A NASA safety panel approved a plan in 2019 that relies on Russia to modify and launch a Progress spacecraft to guide the structure into the atmosphere, where most of it would melt and the rest break up over the Pacific Ocean.
But Russia's agreement with space station partners -- including Europe, Japan and Canada -- ends in 2024, and Russian state media reported in April that the nation's deputy prime minister, Yuri Borisov, said it might abandon it by 2025.
Uncertainty over future Russian participation -- and developing its own space station -- has led to a non-committal stance by NASA, pending more clarity about the deorbit plan and whether Russia still will carry out the job.
More:
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2021/08/12/nasa-international-space-station-deorbit-Russia/3871628619090/?ur3=1
