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The John Batchelor Show

Russia Debates Orbit and Costs for Post-ISS Space Station. Anatoly Zak explains how Roscosmos faces a debate over the orbit of its new space station: a low-inclination 51-degree orbit or a more expensive near-polar orbit. The polar orbit offers strategic

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Books, News, Society & Culture, Arts

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Russia Debates Orbit and Costs for Post-ISS Space Station. Anatoly Zak explains how Roscosmos faces a debate over the orbit of its new space station: a low-inclination 51-degree orbit or a more expensive near-polar orbit. The polar orbit offers strategic Arctic observation but increases radiation risk and reduces payload capacity. Economic realities may push Roscosmos toward the cheaper 51-degree orbit, possibly using existing ISS infrastructure, to ensure an operational station for cosmonauts by 2031.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:24.0

This is CBSI on the world. I'm John Bachelor. Hotel Mars. Episode N. David Livingston,

0:30.1

Dr. Space of the space show joins me as my colleague and co-pilot. And we're very pleased

0:35.7

to bring on a good friend of ours for many years.

0:39.6

Anatolese Act, who keeps the Russian space web, highly recommend following the number one

0:45.5

space-faring country and operation in history.

0:50.1

Ross Cosmos, many changes, a lot of looking to the future. Anatatoly is here to introduce us to the post-I-S-S-Rosmos.

1:00.9

That means that the International Space Station, we've depended on all these years for joint activity of Russia and the United States, is going to deorbited sometime in these next years.

1:13.5

The date, it moves around. But the deorbiting, and SpaceX has the contract to do that,

1:20.8

means that new space stations will be launched. There are five or four or five commercial

1:26.5

proposals in the U.S.

1:28.9

And the U.S. also has opportunity to build its own if it wants to. But

1:33.2

Russia is building one, a new one, or plans to build a new one, on drawing up plans to

1:41.0

build a new one. China is building a new one of all kinds in low Earth orbit,

1:45.7

but there are going to be more to come. We believe that all the Lagrange points will be occupied

1:51.5

over the next decades. We believe the moon will be occupied, perhaps moon orbit as well.

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