Russia Is Clearly Threatening To Leave The ISS Program
Russian gov't-controlled RIA Novosti @rianru posted a video on Telegram made by @Roscosmos where cosmonauts say goodbye to Mark Vande Hei on #ISS, depart, and then the Russian segment detaches from the rest of ISS. @Rogozin is clearly threatening the ISS program. #NASA #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/fj2coK1xR1
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) March 5, 2022
Bye-bye, don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.
At this point I’m thinking that would be an improvement.
Doesn’t the US portion of the station power the entirety of the ISS?
Yes, but the Russian segment has its own solar cells anyway. There would be at least some power, I think, though maybe it would be very restricted.
I don’t think it would be a significant loss. The Russians never fully integrated themselves especially into orbital operations. They mainly keep to their own modules. In the past they were critical for getting crew and cargo to the station but now we have alternatives. Originally the language of the ISS was supposed to be English but because the Russians remained separate, all of the crew has to spend a lot of time in Russia and learn Russian. Not having to do this would simplify a lot.
It might not be as simple, but the other international partners speak other languages too! It’s a mark of mutual respect and cooperation and useful to learn each others’ language to some degree if there’s time, even if English is the Lingua Franca (irony intended). Russia is/was the oldest and principal other partner, so that applies. Knowing some Russian would surely be helpful to anyone who is flying in a Soyuz, etc..
Did the original English-language specification date from the Space Station Freedom days, prior to Roscosmos joining (genuine question)?
I think that both US and Russian crew tend to keep to their own modules, which is kind of going against the idea.
NASA, Roscosmos and ESA do cooperate with the general communications etc., via their respective MCCs.
The US agreements with ESA, Japan and CSA go back to the mid 1980s under Reagan. Russia was added in 1993 or 4 by Clinton. Russians signed up to agreements early on that US never held them to. Most on the US side speak English unless they are speaking to someone back in their own country or if they are working on something together with the Russians. ESA announced this week they will not continue to work with the Russians.
There were good reasons for adding Russia, particularly in an uncertain situation after the end of the Soviet system. Russia had to ditch Mir in order to finance participation in ISS. It was at least worth trying cooperation. And some good has come out of it, even if the stupid actions of Putin have destroyed much.
Re ESA, I assume that means research and obviously launches The MCCs still have to interoperate.
Trying to look on the bright side here – NASA and Congress should use this as an opportunity to put serious effort into planning and executing our next permanent space habitat, either another space station or a moon base. We do have to acknowledge that there’s not a cost-effective way to salvage the non-Russian parts of the station, so having one of the crew or cargo ships boost what’s left should not be a serious consideration.
It really is a shame, the ISS has been a beacon of peaceful cooperation towards a common goal for humanity. Maybe one day the dream can live again.
If the ISS were divided, surely an equivalent service module could be constructed? That seems way more cost-effective than dumping capable modules on which so much time, effort and money has been spent.
I wish more people would discuss this option. Can we keep the ISS going by replacing old modules and other components instead of burning it up? I can’t imagine a viable human space program without an existing space station somewhere.
With respect to the audience, “A., M-F’n Russians, we don’t need your crappy hardware and self-sabotaging mindset on OUR station.” All I can think of is all the civilians and children they have killed in Ukraine. Do the majority of civilized people think I / we should shed a tear if they leave the ISS? We are better off without them. Show them the door.
Hey Russia — your Leader For Life has just taken you out of a proud joint venture in Space because he is throwing a temper tantrum over a country not welcoming him with open arms as he bombs and invades them with a goal of killing the elected President and as many civilians as possible.
Russians — is this creep more trouble than he is worth?
We will welcome you back into the family of nations when he is gone. (Hint, Hint.)
To think of the years it took, billions spent, many people devoting their careers on various systems (and many pulled a lot of all-nighters). And to have just one person completely screw things up and end it all.
That video Roscosmos posted is one of the saddest things I’ve seen. And to have some guy singing triumphantly along with it is nauseating and childish. Putin’s behaviour is reckless and tragic for people of good will everywhere, of which there are many.
We’re extending its operational life. There was never any promise of doing that. It’s been a good run.
Dance with the devil and get burned. NASA was warned years ago. It chose a clearly self-deluded policy to push cooperation with Russia. It now has earned the problems it will have as that cooperation turns back to rivalry.
Let us discuss – not necessarily act upon – cooperating with the Chinese in space. China is rising, Russia – though dangerous – is falling.
India might be an equally good choice and substantially less controversial.
With where the private space industry is taking us, do we even need nation state partners?
Respectfully, we’re moving out of one mistake, and you want to dive headlong into another one?
I’ve been saying on this website we never should have worked with the Russian government for years because what it is doing now in Ukraine is what that government always is, and without a fundamental change, will always be. And everytime I said that, it was met with a chorus of very myopic people who put their space ambitions over what they derided as Earthly politics. Well, I hope they have some time to reflect on their moral compromise. We should never have cooperated with an authoritarian regime that aims 1550 nuclear weapons at us, thus preventing the US from using its power to save 40 million people from conquest.
The sequel to this sordid episode is China and its ambitions. It wants to upend the liberal democratic world order and replace it with one where it exists at the center. Just last month is stated its goal to (in so many words) make the world safe for authoritarianism. It wants its neighbors supplicant to it. It has stolen our technology. It is committing genocide in Xinjiang. The list goes on.
And here we go again. The whole peaceful partnership and cooperation nonsense. Why? So we can trade away a few more of our technological crown jewels to another authoritarian enemy – and they are an enemy – who is building 1000 nuclear weapons to aim specifically at us?
When are you people going to give up this nonsense? We should be cooperating with the ESA, with Japan, with Canada, and with India. We should not be cooperating with the Axis of Autocracy which is plunging the world into a New Cold War.
Want to know when we should go back to peaceful cooperation with China and Russia? When those Earthly politics the space community look down upon as petty bickering have been fundamentally and permanently resolved. Maybe it’ll be another 30 years. Maybe never. But not until then. No more moral compromises in the name of living some Star Trek fantasy. This is the real world, and in the real world, we spent a decade getting fleeced by the very people waging a terror campaign against civilians in Europe as we speak..
To that, Congress needs to ban NASA from it’s absurd proposal to “trade” seats on a Crew Dragon for a Soyuz. And then NASA needs to the toss the people who came up with such a hairbrained scheme. No more Americans on Soyuz flights. And a Russian never steps foot inside a Crew Dragon. The end.
The video implies the Russian segment has some kind of quick disconnect, joint, they can undock from the rest, (cut the cables & pipes?) and fly away. If it wasn’t so tragic, it could be funny. No doubt, created by their disinformation engines. Some people may believe it works that way.
The Russian segment is largely independent of the US segment. It does have all of its own systems: electrical, data, life support…The US and Russian segments are docked together. In addition to the docking system, mechanical C-clamps hold the two together. They can easily be removed, the segment undocked, and released. There is nothing to prevent it. On the US (and Canada, European, and Japanese) side, the systems are independent except for propulsion. Propulsion can be provided by transient logistics vehicles including Cygnus, Dragon, HTV and in the future Dream Chaser or CST100. In the past Shuttle and ATV provided re-boost capability. There is not a need and there is not complete reliance on the Russians.
Thanks for the insight. It may come to that, seems like.
It’s important to remember that Rogozin’s flailing is, at least in part, a reflection of his dependency upon Putin for his position. It’s becoming increasingly clear that there’s instability in the very center of Russian power, and Rogozin may be feeling increasingly desperate as his benefactor comes under pressure and under the threat of a coup d’état. Little of what is happening in Russia can be described by classic rational actor models of politics, but I still feel that Russia is unlikely to abandon ISS, as long as the US/NATO do not overtly and directly enter the war that Russia has started with Ukraine.
The limiting hardware on the ISS is the Russian Segment. Without it the ISS could go well into the 2030s. And with the Russian segment gone PMA1 could accommodate additional commercial modules (the Axiom modules are attaching to Node 2 at the forward end).
Good luck Russia with your Mir class Station with reduced power and comm. We’ll do fine without you.
As a certain rap group once said: “Bye Felicia….”