Russia stops using €360 million Dutch-made robot arm on ISS

The Russian space organization Roskosmos will stop using the Dutch-made meters-long robot arm at the International Space Station (ISS). Roskosmos director Dmitri Rogozin will soon give this order, Russian media reported.

The Robotic arm is installed on the Russian module of the ISS, the space station that Russia, Europe, the United States, and Japan jointly manage. Roskosmos announced in April that it would withdraw from the ISS due to Western sanctions, but Russia will first fulfill its obligations for another year. Among other things, Russia supplies fuel for the ISS and helps to keep the space station in orbit and prevent collisions with space debris.

The 11-meter-long robotic arm arrived at the space station in July last year to support spacewalks, inspections, and scientific experiments, among other things. Work on the European Robotic Arm (ERA) began in the 1980s, but changing plans and postponed launches delayed its deployment until last year.

The development and construction of the arm cost approximately 360 million euros. The Netherlands paid about 240 million euros of that amount.