How’s about that space station?

[unclebilly]

How does the Russian attack on Ukraine affect activity at the International Space Station which I understand is predominantly operated by the Russians?

Asking because I don’t know.

[flatbutt]

I would suppose it depends upon how badly we need their shuttle. Space X may make the Soyuz obsolete. As far as the cosmonauts go , how badly do they want to return to Mother Russia and how much family they have.

[Steve Carlton]

Funny. Similar theme in 2010: The Year We Make Contact, the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey. An outstanding sequel, IMO.

[RNajarian]

In a nutshell, various countries who are participating in the ISS built and contributed various components, the two major players being the US and Russia. Canada supplied the robotic arms and other countries supplied other modules.

The US agreed to be responsible for life support systems and the Russians agreed to be responsible for altitude corrections/adjustments.

When the US implemented the sanctions on Russia as a result of the war in Ukraine, Roscosmos (Russian NASA) threatened to separate their main component which oversees the altitude adjustment. Dmitry Rogozin, a Putin flunkie, and the director of Roscosmos said, “Let the ISS crash into the US, it doesn’t fly over Russia.” -Incorrect statement as it does fly over Russia.

He also threatened to leave American astronaut Mark Vande Hei on the ISS and not allow him to return as scheduled on March 30 on a Russian Soyuz capsule, also because of the US sanctions. Hei did return as scheduled.

The Russians have expressed a desire to withdraw from the ISS agreement as early as 2025, while the US wants to maintain the ISS into 2030.

[Steve Carlton]

Can we take over the altitude corrections?

[RNajarian]

I am sure anything is possible.

I am not an engineer, but I suspect if the Russians deorbit their module we would have to come up with something. Likely a few SpaceX Dragon capsules positioned at the docking ports could provide the necessary thrust to make minor adjustments or move it to a higher orbit in the event of an imminent collision.

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

Funny. Similar theme in 2010: The Year We Make Contact, the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey. An outstanding sequel, IMO.

Good movie. To quote the Russian ambassador in that movie "The Soviets will not care if a couple of measly American astronauts are hitching a ride. This would also look good on the front page of Pravda."

(Im sure I'm a bit off on that)

[Steve Carlton]

That's the gist of it. "Have you checked Discovery's orbit lately?"

Dr. Floyd discovers the reason for the awkwardness with the Russians after his hibernation:

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

That's the gist of it. "Have you checked Discovery's orbit lately?"

Dr. Floyd discovers the reason for the awkwardness with the Russians after his hibernation:

You bring your whisky from Kentucky.

[Steve Carlton]

"Piece of pie." > "Piece of cake."

"Simple as cake." > "Simple as pie."

[sc_rufctr]

I'm sure they'll work out their differences on the space station. If you think about it they really don't have any other option.

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

Funny. Similar theme in 2010: The Year We Make Contact, the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey. An outstanding sequel, IMO.

Great old movie that I re watched about 6 months ago. The special effects look dated but it's still worth the time.

[IROC]

I was working on the Shuttle program when the Soviet Union collapsed (dang, I'm old). We (the US) took advantage of their experience and partnered with them on several ventures. The first was a on-orbit docking of the Shuttle with their Mir space station. In fact, I worked on the design and was responsible for the testing of the tunnel adapter to allow Mir to dock to our Spacelab tunnel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle%E2%80%93Mir_program

Then, as we transitioned to building ISS, we partnered with the Russians to build and utilize payload carriers (to ferry stuff up to build ISS). I remember running into a problem because they use a weird pitch of 12 mm thread that isn't available in the US and that caused some problems.

Anyway, I say all of this to point out that even in the midst of political turmoil, we kept politics out of it and worked as professionals. Even now, I work with several Russians (one has an office two doors down from mine). We don't bother with the politics.

Let's hope that continues.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

That's the gist of it. "Have you checked Discovery's orbit lately?"

Dr. Floyd discovers the reason for the awkwardness with the Russians after his hibernation:

mmmm young Helen Mirren

[GH85Carrera]

From what I remember the Russian rockets, the actual rocket engine is much like a small block Chevy engine, proven, reliable, and cheap. Several American companies just buy that engine from Russia and use them on American rockets. I suspect those companies are sucking mud right now if the supply of the engines is cut off from the embargoes.