Russia sticking with space station until at least 2028, it tells NASA

Russian space officials told their U.S. counterparts that Moscow expects to remain on the International Space Station at least until their own outpost in orbit is built in 2028, NASA's space operations chief told Reuters.

The assurance on Tuesday from Russia came after the newly appointed head of its space agency, Roscosmos, surprised NASA earlier in the day by announcing that Moscow intended to end more than two decades of partnership on the space station "after 2024."

"We're not getting any indication at any working level that anything's changed," Kathy Lueders, NASA's space operations chief, told Reuters on Wednesday, adding the National Aeronautics and Space Administration relations with Roscosmos remained "business as usual."