The Russian Orbital Service Station (russian: Российская орбитальная служебная станция, ''Rossiyskaya orbital'naya sluzhebnaya stantsiya'') (ROSS, russian: РОСС) is a proposed Russian orbital

space station A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station i ...

scheduled to begin construction in 2026. Initially an evolution of the

Orbital Piloted Assembly and Experiment Complex The Orbital Piloted Assembly and Experiment Complex (russian: Орбитальный Пилотируемый Сборочно-Экспериментальный Комплекс, ''Orbital'nyj Pilotirujemyj Sborochno-Eksperimental'nyj Kompl ...

(OPSEK) concept, ROSS developed into plans for a new standalone Russian space station built from scratch without modules from the

Russian Orbital Segment The Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) is the name given to the components of the International Space Station (ISS) constructed in Russia and operated by the Russian Roscosmos. The ROS handles Guidance, Navigation, and Control for the entire Station. ...

of the

ISS The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (J ...

Overview

In April 2021,

Roscosmos The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...

officials announced plans to possibly exit from the

International Space Station programme The International Space Station programme is tied together by a complex set of legal, political and financial agreements between the fifteen nations involved in the project, governing ownership of the various components, rights to crewing and ...

after 2024, stating concerns about the condition of its aging modules. On 26 July 2022, Roscosmos announced that the decision had been made to withdraw from the ISS programme after 2024. A new space station, named Russian Orbital Space Station, operated entirely by Roscosmos, would be launched starting in the mid-2020s. The first crewed mission is planned for 2026. ROSS will operate at a 400 km altitude

sun-synchronous orbit A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is ...

, which will allow it to monitor the entire surface of the Earth, especially the Arctic region. This orbit will enable the station to serve two important functions: high-frequency observations of Russia from space, and easier access to the station compared to the

, which will allow for more medical and physiological experiments to be conducted than what is currently feasible on the Russian Orbital Segment of the ISS.

Planned modules

NEM-1 The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (J ...

, also known as Science Power Module 1 (SPM-1), will be the core module of ROSS. Initially intended to be launched to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

in 2024, NEM-1 will instead undergo 1.5–2 years of redesign to prepare the module for its new role as part of ROSS. As of April 2021, NEM-1 is scheduled to launch in 2026 on an

Angara A5 The Angara rocket family (Russian: Ангара) is a family of launch vehicles being developed by the Moscow-based Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. The launch vehicles are to put between and into low Earth orbit and ar ...

launch vehicle from

Vostochny Cosmodrome The Vostochny Cosmodrome (russian: Космодром Восточный, ''Kosmodrom Vostochny'', "Eastern Spaceport") is a Russian spaceport (still partly under construction) above the 51st parallel north in the Amur Oblast, in the Russian ...

and new Core module (similar to NEM-1) is scheduled to launch in 2028. ROSS is envisioned to include up to seven modules, with 2035 being the targeted completion date. The first stage of construction will consist of four modules: the base NEM-1 module, an upgraded NEM, a node module, and a gateway module. The second stage will include logistics and production modules, as well as a platform module for servicing spacecraft. A commercial module for up to four

space tourist Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. During the period from 2001 to 2009, seven space tourists made eight s ...

s is also under consideration.

References

External links

Russian Orbital Service Station, ROSS
{{Spaceflight Roscosmos Proposed space stations 2020s in spaceflight 2020s in Russia

Overview

Planned modules

See also

References

External links