ROSCOSMOS will soon transition to commercial space missions, revealed the space agency's chief Yuri Borisov after the revelation of Russia's exit from the ISS.

Yuri Borisov, the Director-General of ROSCOSMOS, revealed that the Russian space agency will soon transition to commercial space missions for revenue. This comes shortly after he announced that ROSCOSMOS will no longer be a partner in managing the International Space Station (ISS) after 2024. According to Borisov, the decision to enter the commercial market is the growing demand for private launches be it for satellite missions or space tourism.

"This is tested practice in the entire world, it is a confirmed practice, and we will transition to provision of commercial services", Borisov said during a TV interview as per TASS News.

Notably, ROSCOSMOS' idea of offering launch services to other entities is not new as it is selling the idea of a visit to the International Space Station (ISS) since last year. In June last year, Glavkosmos, a subsidiary of ROSCOSMOS established to manage marketing and space tourism for Russia, advertised a trip to the ISS in its Soyuz capsule.

While the company did not reveal the amount the customers will be paying for their flight, Dmitry Loskutov, Director General of Glavkosmos, had said, in an official statement last year, that "participants of space flights will find out which spacecraft and rocket they will go on a space trip on, what tasks will be solved during their pre-flight training, what they will be able to do during their stay in space".

According to Glavkosmos' website, Toyohiro Akiyama, a Japanese journalist, was the first commercial space traveller when he flew to Russia's Mir space station in 1990. However, ROSCOSMOS launched the first space tourist to the ISS in 2001 when it sent American engineer Dennis Tito for an eight-day mission.

Glavkosmos Role In ISRO's Gaganyaan

Glavkosmos will play a major role in materialising the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Gaganyaan Program which is likely to begin next year. The company will provide heating and life support systems for the Gaganyaan spacecraft under a contract signed between the two parties in 2019. Under this contract, Glavkosmos helped ISRO in the selection and training of the astronauts for Gaganyaan.

The Gaganyaan program will begin with two uncrewed launches, the second of which would involve a robot to measure the effects of spaceflight. These two missions will then be followed by a crewed launch which is likely to be conducted in 2024.