Russia May Abandon Permanent Human Crews at the Interntional Space Station

The Russian federal space agency Roscosmos could phase out its program of building orbiting stations permanently inhabited by crews in favor of unmanned stations regularly visited by crews, Roscosmos Deputy Chief Vitaly Davydov told journalists.

"Uninterrupted presence of crews in orbit might not be necessary. We are used to talking about development as if along a spiral. We do not rule out that we could return to the DOS [Durable Orbital Station] ideology, which we had before permanently inhabited orbital stations. Possibly we would have to revert to visited stations," Davydov said.

Roscosmos working groups are analyzing the future of manned space exploration, including the possibility of reverting to visited stations, he said. "This issue is open now. And the working groups we have are working on this issue among other things," Davydov said.