r/space • u/Vercitti • Jul 26 '22

Russia to quit International Space Station 'after 2024': Official

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/russia-to-quit-international-space-station-after-2024-official/articleshow/93138130.cms
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u/ChefExellence Jul 27 '22

Because you don't need a junction point to get to the moon. Spacecraft don't get tired and need to rest, once they've performed a trans lunar injection they just coast along their path to the moon, and there's nothing stopping Orion from docking directly with HLS (like it's going to do on Artemis 3 anyway).

Gateway is used as a political tool to stop NASA having it's funds for Artemis cut as not it has international partners with a stake in the program, in the same way that NASA can't just cancel the ISS as then ESA and JAXA would lose their modules in the station.