Will the Space Station be Abandoned? (a.k.a-We can't rely on the Russians)

Like the Mary Celeste, the International Space Station (ISS) could be floating empty, devoid of humans by November. However, unlike the Mary Celeste, we'll know exactly what happened to the crew.

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In the wake of the Russian Progress vehicle crash shortly after launch on Aug. 24, a chain of events has been set into motion that could result in the decision not to fly astronauts into orbit. If this happens, the ISS will be temporarily mothballed before the end of the year to avoid landing astronauts during the harsh Kazakh winter.

Investigations are under way as to why the motor of the third stage of the Soyuz-U rocket switched off early, preventing Progress M-12M from reaching orbit. The unmanned cargo vehicle crashed minutes later in Siberia, 1,000 miles east of the launch site in Kazakhstan. Fortunately, there were no reported casualties on the ground.

Well, the Soyuz-U rocket's third stage is almost identical to equipment used on the Soyuz-FG booster used to propel manned Soyuz vehicles to the ISS. Yes, those are the same taxi rides NASA now depends on to get U.S. astronauts to the orbiting outpost. In fact, since the retirement of the shuttle fleet, it is currently the only human-rated ride into space on the planet.

"We will understand, to our satisfaction, the anomaly, what is believed to be the cause and how they resolved it," said Michael Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager. "If we're not happy, we won't put our astronauts on the Soyuz."

Source: news.discovery.com...=rssnws1



We need our OWN dam Space Stuff dam it. This is truly a sign of things to come. If nothing else, this event should prove to NASA and Obama Admin that we need our own Space vehicle and not rely on the Russians or anyone else.

The USA needs to be the one in Charge. Man this just P.O;'s me off royally.

But, what will happen? They'll continue on with the plan and we'll lose our people... just wait an see.

Amazing the is NO PLAN "B". What a Shame....

Originally posted by anon72

We need our OWN dam Space Stuff dam it. This is truly a sign of things to come. If nothing else, this event should prove to NASA and Obama Admin that we need our own Space vehicle and not rely on the Russians or anyone else.

The USA needs to be the one in Charge. Man this just P.O;'s me off royally.

But, what will happen? They'll continue on with the plan and we'll lose our people... just wait an see.

Amazing the is NO PLAN "B". What a Shame....

Yes you do, it's time to stop funding these stupid American projects. The UK needs the money it invested to fix the problems at home. No, please, do carry on by yourselves, I'm sure your extremely strong and stable economy can hold it up.

No?

It's time to realise you are not the country you once were. You need the international community for this because you simply can't afford to go it alone. Watching this national downfall is actually quite funny.

AhaHaHa!!!!!! Can't rely on the Russians???!!!! America was unable to build its own station in the first place, not to mention getting most of its astronauts killed hahaha And the Russians were modest enough to let NASA play with the station. If Russia had NASA's money, we'd have had camps on the moon atleast by now, and safe passage there and back lolol

reply to post by anon72


Just out of pure concern for the US astronauts (and any other to be fair),I would have just assumed we pulled them from that ISS on our last shuttle mission. Second, there are plenty of things we can study on the earth that cost MUCH less than space travel and highly educated/skilled pilots taking dumps in orbit.

I'd also say, let the other countries have at it on their own and see how they do. Its apparent that they want a go at it.

reply to post by Swanfilters


When introduced by President Reagan, it was Space Station Freedom.

All the commies cried like babies and we were forced to bring on "all nations" in a show of "international cooperation". Space Station Freedom was re-named to the European-bureaucrat-approved, non-inspirational, de-humanized name The International Space Station. America now had to contend with whining infants from across the globe. 30 years later not one of them can get a man to their beloved INTERNATIONAL space station.

America's space program is well-funded, effective, and strategically superior to anything devised or dreamed of by any nation on the planet. We just don't require the interference from international "partners" to achieve our objectives in space. And we certainly don't need the services of the ISS.

The US could sell its half of the ISS to China. They'd buy that real estate as soon as you uttered the words it was for sale.

Then Russia sells it's half to India...and we all sit back and watch the fun that happens after that.

Japan would be a buyer as well.


The ISS is an asset that still can be sold, there's many that would jump on its purchase.

It will not be abandoned, too much money and time was invested into ISS to dump it into the ocean right after completion. It is the only manned space asset that remains in orbit from Shuttle era. Besides this, there is a fleet of new vehicles planned to fly in the future, including manned crafts. These will be able to service the ISS, and to do it cheaper than the Shuttle did.

Click here for more information.

I believe it will be abandoned. Then the final Hopi prophecy will come to fruition.

reply to post by Swanfilters


You should just be banned, I'm sick of the psudo intellectual anti americanism from you euros....

In other news, the ISS has never been a singular project for any nation. The US has already spent vastly more money on the station than the other partners and being able to rely on the most important of those partners is not an unreasonable desire.

A single failure is not a reason to bemoan the efforts of the Russians by the way. What makes this event so troubling is the rhetoric which proceeded the failure.

Too bad we are still waiting for the (50-year old) 'new technology' (Obama called for)... which would solve this problem.

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Originally posted by anon72




We need our OWN dam Space Stuff dam it. This is truly a sign of things to come. If nothing else, this event should prove to NASA and Obama Admin that we need our own Space vehicle and not rely on the Russians or anyone else.

The USA needs to be the one in Charge. Man this just P.O;'s me off royally.

But, what will happen? They'll continue on with the plan and we'll lose our people... just wait an see.

Amazing the is NO PLAN "B". What a Shame....

edit on 8/29/2011 by anon72 because: (no reason given)

Well, it's attitudes like that that keep me in a state of despair. We don't need rivalry, we need cooperation. From where I stand, the international Space Station (note the word 'International') was abandoned by the Yankee devils (lol) when they canned the Space Shuttle without thought to providing a follow-up service.

Carry on waving your blood-splattered flag though, man, it's a great sideshow.

The most shameful of things, members attacking each other rather than focusing on the topic at hand.

Let's keep it on topic please.

Originally posted by anon72
In fact, since the retirement of the shuttle fleet, it is currently the only human-rated ride into space on the planet.

I don't think so.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipOne
Ariane 5 with the Hermes Shuttle
China's Long March Series
US Navy's classified vehicles.

... and many others currently under development.

This hiatus in access to space is not permanent.

Space station commander Andrey Borisenko, Russian cosmonaut Alexander Samokutyaev and NASA flight engineer Ronald Garan launched to the complex April 4 and planned to depart the lab and return to Earth on Sept. 8.

The crew's Soyuz TMA-21 capsule can stay docked to the space station for up to 210 days. Its design life expires in late October, and Suffredini said he expects no problems continuing their mission until then.

The other half of the station's six-person crew -- NASA flight engineer Michael Fossum, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov and Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa -- are supposed to return home Nov. 16.

"The November crew has a little different issue," Suffredini said. "If we're not launching by then and we have to de-man space station, we pretty much have to do that probably by about the middle of November."

That crew's Soyuz capsule, named Soyuz TMA-02M, blasted off June 7 and would need to land in late December or early January.

"One of our requirements is to land in daylight, and it has to be an hour from sunset or sunrise," Suffredini said. "On Nov. 19, we reach that cutoff and we go dark."

The next daylight landing window opens in late December, but NASA and Russian officials worry about extreme winter weather conditions in the Soyuz landing zone on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

"The weather is severe out there in the winter time," Suffredini said. "So from a search and rescue standpoint, that's probably something we don't want to do.

Russia quickly recovered from a deadly rocket crash in 2002 and launched a crew of three space fliers two weeks later.

"I fully expect our Russian colleagues will resolve this anomaly in a timely fashion, and I expect them to do it in a safe fashion.

As we see, there is no hidden agendas to return the extended crew home from the ISS. Landing on land ala Apollo style in Russia in their desired window is one reason for timing, the main reason is the built-in backup plans of having two Soyuz's docked to the station for various reasons, and we may see one of the reasons take place.

Originally posted by chr0naut

Originally posted by anon72
In fact, since the retirement of the shuttle fleet, it is currently the only human-rated ride into space on the planet.

I don't think so.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipOne

Retired after reaching an altitude of 62 miles, a third of the way up to the ISS and about 12,000 mph slower than orbital speed.

Ariane 5, never launched a manned mission.

The Long March 2F rocket launched the Shenzhou 7 into an initial elliptical orbit of 200 x 330 kilometres inclined at 42.4 degrees on 25 September 2008. About seven hours later the spacecraft raised its orbit to a more circular orbit of 330 x 336 km.

The ISS operates at 352 x 355 km up. Long March 6 and 7 are in developmental stages.

The U.S Navy doesn't launch manned crafts, the Boeing X-37B is a small unmanned orbiter space shuttle, and has been in it's second orbit since April.

There are many platforms to launch manned crafts into ISS LEO altitude, there just simply hasn't been one used yet.

america needs its own space station? dont think so
russia's ORIGINAL space station, mir, means world in english. world.
nothing russian. nothing east european. world.
they built it for ALL mankind, eventually allowing the americans use of it
if russia had the money nasa has wasted thus far, we would be much more advanced in space
if america had its own space station the world would be kept in the dark about it
can you imagine the secrecy surrounding it?
if this planet is to advance as a civillisation then the whole world needs to come together as one
not one country trying to run the whole world

Just throwing this into the mix, comet Elena!