Russia Quietly Changed Its Space Station Plans. Here’s What That Means

The International Space Station (ISS) is due to close down by 2030, and Russia, one of its main partners, is designing its own replacement orbital laboratory. After a decade of planning to place its future space station into a high-latitude polar orbit for Arctic observation, Russian authorities have changed their minds. Instead the Russians have decided to stick with the familiar ISS orbit—the same 51.6-degree inclination used by the Soviet Mir space station nearly 40 years ago. More

(Source: Scientific American - Dec 31)