/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/YXCGTPVPTBLGHC557LT5FTKTMQ.jpg "Russia to U.S. -Lift sanctions on space sector or we'll exit space station")
Russia to U.S. -Lift sanctions on space sector or we'll exit space station
The International Space Station (ISS) is silhouetted as it transits the Sun, as seen from Shanghai, China June 1, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song
The head of Russia's space agency on Monday suggested Moscow would withdraw from the International Space Station in 2025 unless Washington lifted sanctions on the space sector that were hampering Russian satellite launches.
Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, was addressing parliamentarians ahead of a summit in Geneva later this month between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden.
Rogozin said Moscow was struggling to launch some of its satellites because of U.S. sanctions which meant Russia could not import certain microchip sets needed for its space programme.
"We have more than enough rockets but nothing to launch them with," Rogozin said, in a rare admission by a senior Russian official that Western sanctions are seriously impeding the development of a given industry.
"We have spacecraft that are nearly assembled but they lack one specific microchip set that we have no way of purchasing because of the sanctions."
