NASA has prepared a backup plan following Russia’s announcement to leave the US, Canada, and Russia’s International Space Station (ISS) partnership. Since the two nations’ diplomatic dispute over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, the idea has been in the works.
In case Russia abandons the International Space Station and removes its astronauts, NASA and the White House have been preparing a backup plan. The two-decade-old cooperation, according to officials, is in jeopardy as scientists continue to work to ensure productivity in space while the two nations see a breakdown in their relations on the ground.
According to Reuters, the plan outlines a detailed procedure for removing all astronauts from the station in the event that Russia were to abruptly leave, maintaining it without essential hardware provided by the Russian space agency, and possibly decommissioning the orbital laboratory years earlier than anticipated.
NASA’s space operations chief Kathy Lueders stated in an interview last week that despite the change in the partnership and the Russian space agency’s approval of its own plans to construct an orbiting station in space, ‘We certainly have a strong commitment to maintaining this connection. However, we must ensure that we do have plans. The NASA. There are always backup plans.’
The decision to depart the Space Station was made as the Russian space agency underwent a leadership transition with Putin’s appointment of Yuri Borisov, a deputy prime minister in charge of the weapons sector, in place of outspoken backer and former Russian space agency CEO Dimitry Rogozin.
Since the early 1990s, humanity have had a permanent address at the orbiting outpost that circles the Earth every 92 minutes. Research and testing in zero gravity has so far involved participants from close to 110 nations.
While the Space Station continues to operate, Nasa provides gyroscopes for the space station’s balance and solar arrays for electricity, and the Roscosmos controls the propulsion that keeps the football field-sized laboratory in orbit, making it a joint effort to keep it running.
According to Reuters, Nasa is already in discussions with a number of commercial companies to look at alternative methods of space station control. In case Russia withdraws from the partnership, the American space agency has also working on drafting a formal request to contractors for ways to deorbit the space station faster than anticipated.
In June, Northrop Grumman successfully tested a modified version of its Cygnus cargo spacecraft to change the orbit of the space station while it was berthed, offering a potential substitute for Russia’s thrusters. With its Dragon spacecraft, SpaceX is also researching similar re-boost capabilities.
In late 2021, as US ties with Russia deteriorated, NASA and the White House began contingency planning, according to four American officials.
It also happened after the Russian Ministry of Defense tested an anti-satellite missile in November by destroying a defunct satellite, which caused a debris field close to the International Space Station and required astronauts to seek cover. In addition to financial limitations, experts of Russia’s space programme also mention political concerns as a major factor in the contingency plans. Russia has said that looking into constructing its own space station was ‘economically expedient.’
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