After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States sought to bring Russia into the partnership, in part to keep former Soviet rocket scientists working on civil space activities rather than selling their talents to countries seeking to develop ICBMs or related military technology.Įssentially, NASA was willing to spend money to keep the Russian civil space program afloat, explained Melanie Saunders during an interview several years ago. This document was first negotiated by the United States, Europe, Canada, and Japan in 1988. The International Space Station is governed by a document called the Intergovernmental Agreement, or IGA. "Attempts to detach the US Orbital Segment and the Russian Segment would encounter major logistical and safety challenges given the multitude of external and internal connections, the need to control spacecraft attitude and altitude, and software interdependency." "The Space Station was not designed to be disassembled, and current interdependencies between each segment of the station prevent the US Orbital Segment and Russian Segment from operating independently," NASA said. In its update, NASA basically said that it would be very difficult. That's not to say the US segment could not function on its own. NASA recently enumerated some of these ways in detail, but it boils down to this: The Russian segment needs power from the US segment, and the Russian side of the station is responsible for propulsion to maintain altitude and perform debris avoidance maneuvers. The answer is " probably yes." Technical considerationsįrom a technical standpoint, the Space Station was established to be dependent upon contributions from both Russia and the United States to keep flying. The real question about the near-term future of the International Space Station, therefore, is whether Russia wants to continue flying it. It starts with the solid premise, repeated over and over by NASA officials, that the United States wants to continue flying the International Space Station through at least 2024. This article will consider the future of the partnership from three different dimensions: technical, legal, and political. However, given that the conflict is now nearly a month old and the old laboratory is still flying high, it appears that the partnership among Russia, the United States, and 13 other nations will continue to hold. The fate of the International Space Station hangs in the balance as tensions between Russia and the West escalate following the country's invasion of Ukraine.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |