Russian Mulls Independent Space Station

Anatoly Zak has an interesting piece on the possibility of Russian building its own space station to replace the International Space Station. Here’s a summary of what Russia is considering:

• the station would be known as the High-Latitude Orbital Station, which would fly over more than 90 percent of Russia;


• either permanently inhabited or human-tended with periodic crew visits;


• could serve as the foundation of Russia’s human exploration of the moon;


• would be based around the Multi-purpose Laboratory Module, a module currently planned to be attached to ISS in 2017;


• would include additional modules planned for ISS, including the Node Module, the Science and Power Module, the OKA-T laboratory, and an inflatable habitat.

Read the full story.