NASA Responds to Rogozin’s Threat to Drop Space Station on People’s Heads
NASA has issued a statement in response to Dmitry Rogozin’s Twitter rant in which the head of Russia’s space program threatened to drop the International Space Station on the U.S., Europe, China or India.
NASA continues working with all our international partners, including the State Space Corporation Roscosmos, for the ongoing safe operations of the International Space Station. The new export control measures will continue to allow U.S.-Russia civil space cooperation. No changes are planned to the agency’s support for ongoing in orbit and ground station operations.
Rogozin’s rant was a response to further U.S. sanctions against Russia, which in turn were a response to Russia’s widely condemned invasion of Ukraine this week.
The space station is a collaboration of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada. The station is boosted to higher orbits by Russian Progress resupply ships to keep it from reentering the atmosphere.
17 responses to “NASA Responds to Rogozin’s Threat to Drop Space Station on People’s Heads”
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this is nonesense. Russian infidelity to international law has broken the fundamental trust that the space station is built on. its time to end this agreement
Easier said than done. How do you deal with the Russian modules that control the station in orbit that are controlled from Russia?
you break the station at the FGB/PMA node. The Cygnus at the station now can take over the reboost/attitude CMG de saturation . We would need to move the PMA to allow the Cygnus to be moved to the velocity vector berthing position . some longer term solutions are the ICM which I believe is still in storage and reorienting the Orioncapsule/service module to dock at the PMA port.
the Russians would immediately be power short and have atmospheric issues.
I wouldn’t even want to hazard a guess at how many international treaties and other agreements it would violate to do that. And how would Orion figure in any of this?
Yes, for starters all of the partners would need to agree on it and the network of ISS conventions would need to be revisited. Although NASA may pay the majority of the costs for ISS they do not own it. Than there is liability that would need to be addressed.
You’re not wrong, as the Aussies like to say, but I don’t see that happening – at least not at U.S., European or Japanese instigation. What the mercurial Russkies choose to do is another matter. NASA should certainly be making contingency plans to deal with a sudden Russian exit from ISS – with or without their modules. I, personally, hope for that to happen sooner rather than later, but don’t really expect to get my wish. I think the Russians will continue to be problematical roommates, but I also think they’ll stick with it for as long as the other partners care to keep ISS going.
Rogozin is a criminal, just like the rest of the Russian hierarchy.
Of course he is. But so are the current ruling cliques of many governments, not least our own. Good luck trying to conduct international relations without dealing with criminals.
The thing that has to be dropped is this partnership.
It served its purpose of helping integrate Russia with civilized society, but Russia’s issues are bigger than space. They’re not going to follow international norms, and if the space station partnership doesn’t help keep them in the fold, then the partnership has run its course
its clear none of the arguments from the mid 90’s were accurate…the only one that worked was to save the space station
It has been evident since Putin took over that the notion that “partnering” on ISS was going to transform Russia into something you wouldn’t be embarrassed to invite home for dinner was a dead letter. But the other ISS stakeholders have been willing to overlook all of Putin’s previous depredations and I see no reason to suppose this latest one will be treated any differently.
A fine demonstration of the advantages of sole proprietorship. No extortion handles and a simple decision structure. .
At least right up to the point the “proprietor” gets too eager and steps in a bear trap. It’s far too early to say, definitively, that Ukraine will be Putin’s Afghanistan, but one can hope. A surprisingly large number of Russians seem to take this view.
I was referring to ISS operations. And even with Russia there’s a definite individual responsible. Makes it unlikely to become a buck passing contest.
Elon Musk has posted his reply.
https://twitter.com/elonmus…
Who cares what Elon ‘I touch ladies and get away with it’ Musk thinks on this matter? Is he an expert on the ISS or something?
Cygnus is going to give a small boost to ISS. The Russian rocket engines ought to be banned. N-G could use its’ own SRM or use the AR-1. They should be able to use the rocket body supplied by Ukraine to keep from hurting them.ULA is suppose to have plenty of engines in stock for Atlas or they could switch it to AR-1 also. or just wait for their new rocket. Cost NASA some money however.