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ISS NASA

NASA Assures ISS Will Continue Orbiting Despite Sanctions on Russia (msn.com) 78

Posted by EditorDavid from the peaceful-skies dept.
On Thursday the head of Russia's space agency "warned that new sanctions imposed on his country could have dire consequences for the International Space Station program," reports Space.com (in an article shared by Slashdot reader Hmmmmmm): "Do you want to destroy our cooperation on the ISS?" read one of the tweets from Roscosmos Director-General Dimitry Rogozin, which was translated by Rob Mitchell for Ars Technica senior space editor Eric Berger, who shared Mitchell's translation on Twitter. Russia and the United States are the major partners in the ISS program, which also includes Canada, Japan and multiple European nations...

NASA, however, told Space.com later Thursday that civil cooperation between the U.S. and Russia in space will continue, particularly with regard to the ISS.

But Rogozin struck a much different tone, suggesting that the new sanctions could potentially result in the ISS crashing to Earth in an uncontrolled fashion. (The Russian segment of the ISS is responsible for guidance, navigation and control for the entire complex, according to the European Space Agency. And Russian Progress cargo craft provide periodic orbit-raising boosts for the ISS, to ensure that it doesn't sink too low into Earth's atmosphere....) Rogozin also stressed that the ISS would deorbit naturally without periodic reboosts courtesy of Progress freighters....

Just days ago, however, a Cygnus spacecraft built by aerospace company Northrop Grumman arrived at the ISS with a mandate to perform the program's first operational reboost, which may eventually transfer this capability to U.S. vehicles as well.
Business Insider reports that Thursday's tweets from the head of Russia's space agency also included a dire hypothetical. "If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from an uncontrolled deorbit and fall into the United States or Europe?"

On Saturday Elon Musk "responded by posting the logo of his company, SpaceX." Musk appeared to confirm that SpaceX would get involved, should the ISS fall out of orbit. A Twitter user asked if that's what the tech mogul really meant, to which Musk simply replied: "Yes."

NASA, meanwhile, said it "continues working with Roscosmos and our other international partners in Canada, Europe, and Japan to maintain safe and continuous ISS operations," in a statement to Euronews.
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NASA Assures ISS Will Continue Orbiting Despite Sanctions on Russia More

NASA Assures ISS Will Continue Orbiting Despite Sanctions on Russia

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  • How the mighty have fallen... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Sunday February 27, 2022 @03:50PM (#62309609) Journal
    Time was when the Roscosmos Director-General could have asked "but how will you get that payload into orbit without us?"; rather than "but what if we make something fail?"

    I realize that you have to play to your strengths and all; but still.

  • This is a really bad look for Russia (Score:4)

    by hdyoung ( 5182939 ) on Sunday February 27, 2022 @04:00PM (#62309637)
    Yesterday, Putin basically said “we dont like what other countries are saying about us. So we’re gonna put our nukes on high alert”.

    Today they threaten to crash the ISS.

    That just makes their nation look like a petulant brat. I’m sorry, but that’s a REALLY weak look for a country that fancies itself a top world power. You dont hear the US or China leadership threatening to blow it’s nuclear load just cause it isn’t getting it’s way in some minor battle in some smaller country. Putin is basically handing the role of “main counterbalance to the US” to his up-and-coming neighbor to the east.

    Meanwhile, theyve committed something like 2/3 of their entire army to taking Ukraine and they’re getting a bloody nose. I mean, if they decide they REALLY want Ukraine, they can just go all WW2 and bomb literally everything, and win the conventional war. But I see no way Russia comes out of this looking good.

    • we are at defcon 2!

    • That just makes their nation look like a petulant brat.

      Straight out of the ol' Trump playbook, huh?

      • https://www.bloomberg.com/news... [bloomberg.com]

        Trump called Putin “pretty smart” earlier this week during a closed-door fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Video of the comments was circulated online.

        He also praised Putin’s strategy as “genius” and called the Russian leader “very savvy” in an interview with the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show on Tuesday.

      • Trump would have congratulated Putin and sold more MAGA hats. We’re lucky that there wasnt any major world upset during his watch.

    • "You dont hear the US or China leadership threatening to blow it’s nuclear load just cause it isn’t getting it’s way in some minor battle in some smaller country."

      Remember the bay of pigs?

      • Yeah, we’ve definitely had our share of low moments. That particular one was .. what 55? 60? Years ago.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tekram ( 8023518 )
        May be brush up on your American history. The failed bay of pigs invasion of 1961 predated and was planned before the Cuban missile crisis during the Eisenhower years. It was Castro who on October 26 of 1962 sent a telegram to Khrushchev asking for a nuclear missile strike against the US, fearing another invasion. The US never threatened first nuclear strike.

      • "You dont hear the US or China leadership threatening to blow it’s nuclear load just cause it isn’t getting it’s way in some minor battle in some smaller country."

        Remember the bay of pigs?

        Do you?

        The Bay of Pigs invasion failed because at the last minute the US changed it's mind and decided not to support the invasion with conventional forces. That's the opposite end of the spectrum from threatening to use nuclear weapons.

        You're probably confusing Bay of Pigs with the Cuban Missile Crisis.

        • You're probably confusing Bay of Pigs with the Cuban Missile Crisis.

          The US responded to the missiles in Cuba with a naval blockade. That was a far more moderate action than threatening to launch nukes.

          We also agreed to remove American missiles from Turkey.

          • I dont share these other posters obviously pro-Russian, anti-US attitudes, but you’re seriously whitewashing the US role in the Cuban missle crisis. First, the Russians were hoping to put missles in cuba because we had already posted US nukes literally right across the border to the USSR. Second, if I remember my history correctly, the “moderate” naval blockade you mention involved US ships dropping depth charges onto nuclear-armed soviet submarines. The soviet sub captain had authorizatio

      • Bay of Pigs did not feature the US threatening nuclear war on Russia: it was based around the opposite, Russia threatening nuclear war on the US. The US response was what, a naval blockade and helping an insurgency that used ....rifles and rubber boats?

    • That just makes their nation look like a petulant brat. I’m sorry, but that’s a REALLY weak look for a country that fancies itself a top world power. You don't hear the US or China leadership threatening to blow it’s nuclear load just cause it isn’t getting it’s way in some minor battle in some smaller country.

      Not much of what Putin has said about this makes *any* sense. He warns that they're not afraid of anyone and have a large, strong military -- with nukes, that they've just put an alert -- and that anyone who tries to stop them will face, "consequences as you have never faced in your history" -- while they invade Ukraine because of "reasons" and Russia feels threatened by this *much* smaller country -- oh, and Ukraine is overrun with Nazi's, even though their President and several members of Parliament are

      • Not much of what Putin has said about this makes *any* sense. He warns that they're not afraid of anyone and have a large, strong military -- with nukes, that they've just put an alert -- and that anyone who tries to stop them will face, "consequences as you have never faced in your history" -- while they invade Ukraine because of "reasons" and Russia feels threatened by this *much* smaller country -- oh, and Ukraine is overrun with Nazi's, even though their President and several members of Parliament are Jewish. Putin has lost his mind.

        There's a theory going around that Putin's sick, and in cognitive decline.

        This comes mostly from (French president) Macron, who has met with Putin over the years and has noted a recent decline in mental sharpness.

        Then there's Putin's recent announcements that don't make a lot of sense such as the Nazi thing and the drug users thing, and attacking Ukraine didn't make a lot of sense to begin with, and many people have been left wondering about Putin's health.

      • Ukraine is overrun with Nazi's, even though their President and several members of Parliament are Jewish.

        "Nazi" has a different meaning in Russia.

        America strongly associates the Nazis with the Holocaust and anti-Semitism, yet many Americans are unaware that Russia bore 90% of the cost of defeating Nazism.

        Russia associates the Nazis with the war of extermination they waged on the Eastern Front and don't care much about the Holocaust. Russia has plenty of its own anti-Semitism.

        In Russia, "Nazi" just means anti-Russian ... or anti-Putin.

        • The Russians love to claim that THEY are responsible for defeating Hitler, and point to their huge losses in the war, but there are two problems with the claim:

          1. The Russians helped Hitler START the damned war as Hitler's ally in the crime of trying to take (and split) Poland. Had the war gone as Stalin planned and had Hitler not deceived them, there should be no illusions on anybody's part that the Russians would have done ANYTHING to stop Hitler in a war against the other allies. The Russians had a moral

    • That just makes their nation look like a petulant brat.

      Not exactly a fan, but we're the only ones dumb enough to think virtue signaling matters. It's a war, there are no rules except who wins.

      • Oh there most certainly are rules. For example, there are reasons that Russia isn't just carpet bombing Kyiv right now - it's a bad look when everyone has a video camera in their pocket, and the press have live satellite broadcasts from inside the city.

        Even Putin isn't nuts enough to just indiscriminately level a 1500 year old city. At least, not at this time. If there were no rules, that would have been his opening move.

        • That's not a rule, it's just counter to his interests. A rule implies someone to enforce it. With all the scandals Russia had he's not about to get screwed by his own people, they would have done it by now. Banking sanctions aren't going to do anything, they have their own currency and have focused on self-sufficiency since the cold war. They don't require trade like other nations do.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      You have those two events backwards. The guy tweeted about the ISS before Putin put the nukes on alert.

      It's just some silly BS some Russian posted on Twitter not a real threat. They know that SpaceX and probably others could boost the ISS if needed for SpaceX it's pretty much just a software issue with Dragon.

  • I'd like to remind everybody when Elon Musk promised to produce ventilators to help with the Covid pandemic, instead he bought a bunch of shitty Bipap machines from China, and shipped them to the CDC with a "Tesla" sticker on the boxes.

    • That is because Elon Musk's wealth came from the Apartheid-era emerald mine he inherited from his massively wealthy parents.
      Let's stop pretending he is some business genius. He's just a rich bloke who used the vast wealth he was born with to get richer.

      • This is false.

        https://www.quora.com/How-much... [quora.com]

        $28,000 is not massive wealth.
        Elon was living off a couch when he built his first business, and the money that came from investments by his parents was small fries compared to outside investment in the forming of that company.

        While his father is quite wealthy, and owns an emerald mine, they are estranged, and Elon did not get access to the wealth of his father.

        Also, since both his parents are still alive, how exactly did he inherit anything?

    • I'd like to remind everybody when Elon Musk promised to produce ventilators to help with the Covid pandemic, instead he bought a bunch of shitty Bipap machines from China, and shipped them to the CDC with a "Tesla" sticker on the boxes.

      Well then, that sounds like he's a pretty evil guy, doesn't it?

      Or maybe he tried to do something that didn't work out, or maybe you've been uncritically reading fake news, or maybe there's 2 sides to the story that isn't being told, or maybe there's a reasonable explanation.

      But sure, Elon sounds like a pretty evil guy the way you tell it.

      • Oh yea, Elon is just a misunderstood genius trying to do as best he can...

        Like the time he got butthurt those rescue teams in Thailand wouldn't use this completely impractical Tesla-made underwater coffin to rescue the stranded kids in an underwater cave, and called one of the rescuers a "pedo" then spent $50k hiring private investigators to dig up dirt on him after he was sued for defamation.

        Or maybe he was also misunderstood when he pushed out the original founder of Tesla from his own company, and refuse

    • Don't need Elon. From the article, "Cygnus NG-17 will remain at the space station until about late May. During this time, the spacecraft will perform its first ever reboost of the orbital outpost. The reboost is a maneuver designed to push the space station to a slightly higher altitude to counteract the drag of Earth’s residual atmosphere, which pulls the ISS down over time.", So the Northrup Grumman resupply ship is already planned to try to do a push in the next few months. If it succeeds, and I se

      • It rides to orbit atop an Antares rocket (built in Ukraine, and powered by engines bought from Russia) and while it has successfully been launched on an Atlas as a fallback, the Atlas uses Russian rocket engines, which is why ULA is dropping Atlas and moving to the new Vulcan rocket. Sadly, Vulcan is designed to use Blue Origin's BE-4 engines and Jeff Bezos has been too busy with other diversions to finish those engines. Blue is way behind schedule, and while the Vulcan is ready to try static firing with th

  • With the US and Russia fighting on who gets the old habitrail and the pet hamsters from the living room.

    Right now the escape is a Soyuz capsule to Kazakhstan, I think you may see a temporary abandoning of the ISS during this episode while the 'rents work it out.
    A crew dragon may be an option but that's all speculation.

  • That may well be the culmination of Elon's life right there. How often do you get to do something like that to a whole country?

    • That may well be the culmination of Elon's life right there. How often do you get to do something like that to a whole country?

      Now, now, there's still time and a chance the thrusters on one of Russia's modules will, yet again, malfunction (or is that "malfunction") and uncontrollably spin the ISS into the atmosphere before SpaceX (or anyone else) can save the day. In related news, Roscosmos Director-General Dimitry Rogozin sounds like a HUGE dick.

  • Given that SpaceX has proven it can resupply as well as transport crew, the Russian space program is all but useless now.

    • Given the ownership of some of the modules, it does raise an interesting question - will the US just occupy the Russian parts of the ISS? Throw the Russians off the ISS? What would they do should the Russians decide to turn off the Zvezda module, perhaps in a permanent fashion? Such an action would render the ISS uninhabitable in the short to medium term and require a huge investment to bring back up to habitation.

      There are many unknowns here, cargo and crew capacity is very very low on the list right no

      • Given the ownership of some of the modules, it does raise an interesting question - will the US just occupy the Russian parts of the ISS?

        Might as well occupy the ones we paid for.

      • Besides the flight controls, what is provided by that module that doesn't have redundancy elsewhere?

        Quotes from NASA site on the Zvezda module (https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/zvezda-service-module.html):

        The module provides station living quarters

        for the Russian part of the crew, no great loss to the rest of the station

        life support systems,

        My understanding is that it provides life support to the Russian segment.

        electrical power distribution

        Most of that is in the International segment, so perhaps again for the Russian segment?

        data processing systems

        whatever that means...

        flight control systems and propulsion systems.

        as above

        It provides a communications system that includes remote command capabilities from ground flight controllers, and a docking port for Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft.

        one of multipl

  • "Here I come to save the day! That means that Mighty Musk is on the way!"

  • We're finished... (Score:4, Funny)

    by AndyKron ( 937105 ) on Sunday February 27, 2022 @05:40PM (#62309903)
    Putin's got us by the Space Ballz!

  • 2010 (Score:2)

    by kackle ( 910159 )
    "2010: The Year We Make Contact" anyone?
  • Will just have to walk there,
  • My dearest Dimitri:

    We thank you for your recent message. We have read it and understand completely. Please believe that we do not wish to jeopardize our relationship with the illustrious Roscosmos organization, any of it's members or the leadership of Russia, many of whom, like yourself, are heros of ours. The ISS could not continue without the incredible support of your superlative staff. The technical excellence of the Roscosmos scientists is legendary, and the support provided by the Russian governm

  • Floyd comes out of hibernation and he could sense the awkward vibe on the Russian ship that was giving him, Chandra, and Curnow, a ride to Discovery. They tell him how their respective nations had started getting close to a shooting war while he'd been out.
    Huh, that was Helen Mirrin as the Russian Captain Kirbuk.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • It's only money. The US has plenty of lift capacity. Every Russian project exists for evil as always. Ukraine should have enlightened the doubters.

    ISS is only a machine. Shut the US bit down and cease pretending it is valuable. What we really need is another space race while the US has the advantage.

  • "The Russian segment of the ISS is responsible for guidance, navigation and control for the entire complex" Well that was f'in wise now wasn't it! Geezus. smh

    • When Ronald Reagan announced the space station project, he named it "Freedom" and invited America's allies to join in on the project, which a bunch of them did. His successor, George H. W. Bush, nearly neglected it to death. Then came Bill Clinton, who decided to shake things up and try to use the project to keep Russia's aerospace engineers busy so they would not go around the world freelancing and designing lots of stuff to bad operators.

      Clinton invited the post-Soviet Russia into the project, and THEY ob

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