An international space station could be built on another planet rather than in Earth orbit, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said.

"Is there a reason to continue the ISS program, as the station rotates around the Earth?" Rogozin asked at a conference on the future of space exploration.

"Maybe it would make more sense to implement these types of international projects by placing space stations on other planets," RIA Novosti reported him as saying. "We should think about that."

The International Space Station was launched into low Earth orbit in 1998 and is still being expanded with the addition of new modules to its structure.

A joint project between five participating space agencies -- NASA, the Russian Roscosmos, the Japanese JAXA, the European ESA and the Canadian CSA -- the ISS has a service life originally set to end in 2015 is expected to be extended until at least 2020 and potentially to 2028.