The International Space Station is operated by five partner agencies (Canadian Space Agency, European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and State Space Corporation 'Roscosmos'), with each partner responsible for managing and controlling the hardware it provides. The station was built to be interdependent, and it runs on donations from the entire collaboration. Neither partner is currently capable of functioning without the other.

The space station was not designed to be dismantled, and the station's current interdependencies preclude the US Orbital Segment and Russian Segment from operating separately. Given the multiplicity of external and internal connections, the requirement to manage spacecraft inclination and altitude, and software interdependency, attempts to disconnect the US Orbital Segment and the Russian Segment would face severe logistical and safety hurdles.

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