it was a taxi service that took astronauts to the iss when safety concerns grounded america's shuttle. but the russian technology is old and now is of less use to its former international partners. so once the space station is decommissioned, could russia, the first nation into space, be the first one out? if the russians haven't figured out an alternative by then, and obviously we know that especially european and american space agencies are looking towards the potential of commercial space stations, if russia doesn't partner up with another nation or field its own space station, which, given the current circumstances and sanctions, is quite unlikely, it might not have any crewed space flight. and there's no shortage of others to fill russia's place. china's space programme is advancing... ..and pretty much to schedule too.