US & Russian participation on the International Space Station.

[Anomalocaris]

Bring American equipment back?  With what?

Also, it is a nominally international space station, so nominally the other partners besides Russia gets a nominal say.

The entire attitude of the US on Ukraine is not about moral back bone, but about realities of power.  Ditching the international space station would not not a power move.     That would leave the US, which it thinks is the rightful rule setter and entitled top dog on the world, without a space station, and China, the hateful opponent who doesn’t think the US is the natural rule setter forever, with one.

American equipment will come back with the American astronauts, whatever they can carry.  The pukes can have the rest.  If the US does not have a space station, so what??  We have the sole 5 spacecraft on hyperbolic trajectories that will leave our Solar System, forever.  The United States' legacy as a spacefaring power is secured, forever.  We have nothing to prove, to anyone.

We should abandon the ISS, the sooner, the better.

Actually, the whole reason why there is a race with China to land a man on the moon again 53 years after Apollo is America’s legacy as a spacefaring power is only secure in America’s own pride, not at all secure where it in reality counts, which is in its ability to influence American international competitive positions  against its rivals.       In this America’s past legacy as a space faring power with unparalleled accomplishments counts as much as the Maritime prowess of the Phoenicians counts for the global influence of Lebanon.    It’s what the US is seen to be able to do now, and more importantly what others think the US would actually likely to be able to do in the future that counts.      

China’s pitch is eventhough china started much later than the US, China is on track to surpass the US in all fields of space exploration that sounds really cool by the 2040s.   the promised future Chinese stunts include sending planetary and asteroid sample returns, hyperbolic space crafts out of solar system, creating a total sky coverage space telescope image database with the resolutions that Hubble and GWST can only provide for only a tiny fraction of the sky over their service lives, and permanently manned space stations and manned flights to the moon and Mars.    And of course, cutting edge launch capability and launch economy in all weight classes with re-useable space launchers.    The Chinese just completely revamped their rival to the Saturn 5 and space launch system to make theirs super heavy lift rocket re-usable.

So the US would need to show it can continue to deliver more on each of the areas where China is striving to catch up and out do the US.    unilaterally ditching a nominally international space station would clearly not serve the greater national goal of power supported by being perceived as the more desirable, reliable and capable partner than China might be in the foreseeable future.