The announcement comes as tensions rage between the Kremlin and the West over Moscow's military intervention in Ukraine and several rounds of unprecedented sanctions against Russia.
A Nasa astronaut caught a Russian ride back to Earth on Wednesday after a US record 355 days at the International Space Station, returning with two cosmonauts to a world torn apart by war.
The space agency has targeted the most remote point of the ocean to crash land the space station when its time finally comes. After that, NASA plans to buy time for its astronauts on commercial space stations.
