astronauts into orbit via its Soyuz spacecrafts. Since the end of the NASA space shuttle program, Russia has made a great deal of money transporting U.S. So what, then, is motivating the Russians to make the threat? Almost certainly money. Not to mention when real danger presents itself, ISS crewmembers can head for a Russian Soyuz escape pod. But to say that these maintenance needs are actively threatening cosmonauts might be a stretch-the ISS crew was able to fix the oxygen leak and was never in any serious danger. It is true that malfunctions in the Russian portion of the ISS have occurred, like an oxygen leak back in September 2020. Roscosmos has repeatedly and publicly claimed that the aging infrastructure of the space station is putting its cosmonauts at risk however, the evidence backing these claims is mixed. NASA may even try to extend the life of the space station for longer by replacing key pieces of station infrastructure-or use planned module additions to create a long-term replacement. While the current agreement for the ISS ends in 2024, most of the five core partners (the U.S., Russia, Canada, Japan, and the European Space Agency) are working on an extension until at least 2028. It reiterated this position in June while discussing plans for Russia’s own space station. and Russia even during particularly tense periods.īut in April, in response to ongoing American sanctions and new ones imposed by the Biden administration, Roscosmos-the Russian space agency- called for the Russian state to leave the ISS. And in a more abstract sense, the ISS has provided a rather stable outlet for cooperation between the U.S. The station itself is also separated into two main segments: one for Russia and one for the U.S. Russia has also historically provided half of the station’s crew. The agreement initially governing the ISS left Russia in charge of key altitude control capabilities, some life support modules, and the on-orbit shelter. Two-thirds of the Expedition 1 crew-the first team to reside in the ISS-was Russian. The first segment of the ISS was Russian and was launched aboard a Russian proton rocket in 1998. Russia has been a critical part of the ISS since its inception. And throughout 2021, the Russian government has threatened to do the same. In mid-June, China successfully launched astronauts to their new space station. Back in 2019, India announced that it would not join the International Space Station-instead, it would build and launch its own orbital laboratory. In-orbit real estate is becoming a little more cluttered.
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