Russia unveils model of its new planned space station
Roscosmos released a physical model of its planned space station just shortly
after the head of the Russian space agency announced plans to end the country's joint operation
with the west on the International Space Station by 2024.
The models show that Moscow's efforts to travel alone in zero gravity are progressing rapidly.
The most recent development also suggests that Russia is moving on with its plans to leave the space alliance it has with the US,
the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency. Instead, Moscow is following China's lead
and constructing its own flying laboratory in Earth's orbit.
A mockup of the future space station, known as "ROSS," was displayed by Roscosmos
during the "Army-2022" military-industrial expo held outside of Moscow.
In a statement, Roscosmos stated that the new space station would be launched in two parts,
with the first phase seeing the start of operations and scientific research on a four-module space station.
When finished, it will be able to house up to four cosmonauts as well as scientific equipment.
This will be accompanied by two further modules and a service platform.