Int Space Station may be used to 2028, no sinking planned for 2020.

MOSCOW (Itar-Tass) - Neither the Federal Space Agency
/Roskosmos/, nor other partners in the International Space Station project
are planning to sink the station in 2020, Roskosmos' Head of piloted
programmes Alexei Krasnov said in an exclusive interview with Itar-Tass,
commenting on information in some media that the ISS will follow in 2020
the fate of the Mir orbit complex.
"We discuss with our partners different variants /of using the ISS
after 2020/, including use of it till 2028," he said. Russian experts say
that "from the technical point of view it is quite possible."
An official decision about the station's future is to come. It should
be made within 2-3 years.
"Presently, we are designing the Federal space programme for
2016-2025, and thus we have to realise clearly whether we are using the
ISS to 2025 or we do something different."
The Energiya space corporation suggests using separately the Russian
segment of the station after 2020 if the partners for some reason refuse
from participation in the ISS programme. However, no refusals have been
voiced as yet. On the contrary, on July 26, the coordination council of
the participating countries discussed two major issues: possible use of
the ISS for research of the far space and raising effectiveness of the
scientific component of its use, Krasnov said.
The ISS international project, which was launched in 1998, involves
Russia, the USA, countries of the European space agency, Canada, Japan and
Brazil. Initially, the station was planned to work for 15 years /till
2013/, but the disaster of Columbia shuttle terminated its construction in
2003 for several years. This year, the project participants have got
support from their governments to expand the term of the ISS use to 2020.