"If the Russians haven"t figured out an alternative by the time the ISS is decommissioned or develops its own space station, which given the current circumstances and sanctions is quite unlikely, it might not have any human spaceflight," she says.Russia"s plight comes at a time when China"s space programme is advancing rapidly. In the last ten years it has launched more than 200 rockets, even though America"s spending on space still makes China"s look small.