A Russian spacecraft will rescue two stranded cosmonauts from the ISS today, as Russia’s space program wanes in activity – Photo: NASA/Roscosmos/Handout via Reuters

A Russian Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft is scheduled to arrive today at the International Space Station (ISS) to rescue two stranded cosmonauts.

The cosmonauts have been trapped on the ISS since last December after the Soyuz they arrived was damaged by a micro-meteoroid impact.

Russia’s space industry has declined in recent years, with Russia’s share of global rocket launch attempts falling from 30% in 2015 to 11% in 2022. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has weakened the industry even further due to Western sanctions, disinvestment and budget cuts. In response, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos signed a deal with NASA last July to integrate flights to the ISS and recently approved extending the service life of Russia’s ISS segment to 2028.

Roscosmos may see a slight bump in domestic public approval if the two cosmonauts are successfully rescued, although approval is anticipated to wane as time passes beyond the current year. Russia will likely increase the number of military rocket launches and continue supporting the ISS in the medium term in order to avoid slipping behind other countries even further. If the ISS project is not continued by the station’s other partners, it is likely that space cooperation between Russia and the rest of the world will decline in the coming decade.