I’m also quite dubious the Russian ROS plans will ever amount to anything. The Russians might be able to salvage Nauka from ISS, but the rest of their stuff there is leaky junk. Completing and launching any additional station modules looks like an increasing long shot as the Russo-Ukraine War results in destruction of more and more Russian industry and Russia’s finances grow ever more parlous. If Russia flat-out loses the Russo-Ukraine War – an increasingly likely possibility – then the nation, itself, will crumble into ethnicity-based chunks with a rump Russia having far more pressing concerns than another dinky space station in an orbit it will barely be able to reach from Vostochny – assuming Vostochny is even still in Russian-controlled territory by then.

The Indians, on the other hand, are going to build BAS and are likely already bending metal toward that end. They’ll be good neighbors in the ISS orbit. Perhaps, for old time’s sake, they will occasionally launch and host a Russian cosmonaut or two if – as may well prove to be the case – the Russians lose the ability to do so themselves.

It would also allow SpaceX to straightforwardly run a Starship-based “metro bus”-type service that could provide quite inexpensive crew rotation and cargo resupply to multiple stations on a single trip. It could even be a hybrid of cruise ship and metro bus with short stops of a day or two or three at each station to allow face-to-face crew handover, containerized cargo drop-off/pick-up and for at least some of the “cruise ship” passengers to stretch their legs a bit and see the orbital sights. The entire circuit could take perhaps two or three weeks and the strictly tourist passengers could return at the end of it along with returning crews while the dropped-off crews would remain for longer tours on their respective stations. This would allow the tourists to rub elbows with “real astronauts” too, something that I suspect would be a considerable inducement.

David Eastman: The Russian plan to use ISS modules in its new station in order to save money while speeding development reminds me of Congress’s plan to use shuttle engines and its solid rocket boosters to save money while speeding the development of SLS.

That sure worked out as planned, didn’t it?

I’m not sure whether that’s in fact a more realistic plan than starting from scratch. It means they have less to do, but it also puts a very short timer on the startup phase. With the way they’ve been operating, I don’t see how Russia can get the necessary modules built and launched before ISS has to be abandoned.

On the other hand, using the ISS inclination does mean that they can use the remaining Proton parts. Which again could be good or bad. In theory it’s great, you have parts ready to build the proven rocket. On the other hand, what’s the condition of those parts?