World News for Students of English

01-08-2022 07:00

The International Space Station (ISS) is a space lab above Earth where Russia, the US, Canada, Japan, and other countries work together.

Many people believe that Russia and the US are important because Russian thrusters control the position and US power runs the station.

To the surprise of NASA, the Russian space agency leader suggested that Russia will leave the ISS in 2024. A video showed the leader speaking with President Putin about the country’s cooperation at the station, its plan to finish its work, and in 2024, Russia will focus on its space station. Russia’s space agency showed a picture of the planned station.

NASA’s ISS leader replied that Russia has not told its plan to the agency as is part of the international agreement. A US government spokesperson added that the change was unexpected, as the countries had begun an agreement on space flight.

After Russia started to fight with Ukraine, Russia and the US stopped working together well, and the ISS was one of the last positive activities between the two countries. People expected to work together through 2030; earlier this month, Russia and the US agreed to share astronaut flights to the station.

Difficult words: thruster (a machine that moves a vehicle), position (the location of a vehicle or an object), cooperation (shared work between peoples or groups).

You can watch the original video in the Level 3 section.