The problem is that the ISS depends on Russian cooperation. They've just about withdrawn from all other treaties and no longer have the financial capacity or political support for the ISS after the US and Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
One of the main modules in the space station has a leak and the Russians are the only ones who make the parts. They have announced their intention to withdraw from the ISS treaty, which effectively limits the life of the station.
It was, 2030 was the end date. But this has been extended many times in the past and likely would have been extended otherwise. The original end date for the station was back in 2015, then to 2020, to 2022, 2025, and 2030.
Regardless of the actual end date it is clear Roscosmos no longer wishes to cooperate with NASA on future projects and would like to go a different direction.
AFAIK by now the crew spends more time on maintenance than they do on actual science. I am not saying you are wrong, but this project had to end eventually. There are one failure after another it seems.
Maybe on earth they do, but astronauts to this day use Russia’s Soyuz capsule to get back to earth. In fact, it was the only way for astronauts to even get back down to earth between 2011 and 2020. Russia was the first to put a human in space. I believe they led the space race with the US for a long time, but weren’t the first to go to the moon. Russia played a big role in human exploration of space and, as shitty as things are now with them, it’s not fair to erase their contributions in space.
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u/sarsnavy05 5d ago
Destroy it? But they just added a lovely new Starliner module! 🥺