The United States and Russia announced a joint effort to construct a new space station to replace the International Space Station (ISS), but festering geopolitical tensions might yet undo this plan.

The announcement made March 28 in Moscow by the Russian Federal Space Agency or Roscosmos is being hailed as a welcome move despite stubborn tensions between Russia and the U.S., especially over the war in Ukraine.

Like Us on Facebook

"Roscosmos together with NASA will work on the program of a future orbital station," said Igor Komarov, head of Roscosmos.

"We agreed that the group of countries taking part in the ISS project will work on the future project of a new orbital station," said Komarov.

He noted the project to build the new space station would be "open" and could include countries not currently involved in the ISS, which is a reference to China.

"The first step is that the ISS will operate until 2024," he added. Russia had threatened to stop supporting the ISS in 2020 but said earlier this year it would keep its support until 2024.

Roscosmos and NASA "do not rule out that the station's flight could be extended," Komarov pointed out. "Its term of existence will depend on the implementation of our joint projects".

Earlier, Russia announced plans to build its own space station after 2024 using its modules from the ISS after it's mothballed.

The Russian government, however, indicated this deal isn't ironclad and might be changed.

Komarov made the announcement with NASA administrator Charles Bolden at Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan following the successful launch of the Soyuz capsule that took NASA astronaut Scott Kelley and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko to the ISS.