NASA exploring ways to keep ISS afloat without Russian help: official

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Painters refurbish the NASA logo on the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in Florida on May 29, 2020. The faded 10-story-tall insignia was last painted 13 years ago. – The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon capsule is rescheduled to launch to the International Space Station on May 30, carrying astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. (Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP)

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States (AFP) – NASA is exploring ways to keep the International Space Station in orbit without Russian help, but doesn’t see any immediate signs Moscow is withdrawing from the collaboration following the invasion of Ukraine, a senior official said Monday.

Kathy Lueders, who heads the agency’s human spaceflight program, told reporters on a call that operations on the research platform were proceeding “nominally” and “we’re not getting any indications at a working level that our counterparts are not committed.”

“That said, we always look for how do we get more operational flexibility and our cargo providers are looking at how do we add different capabilities,” she continued.

While the US side of the ISS supplies power and life support, Russia is responsible for propulsion and keeping the station afloat: it does this by using docked Progress spacecraft to periodically give the station a boost to maintain its altitude, approximately 250 miles (400 kilometers) high.

This handout photograph taken on July 29, 2021 and released by the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos on July 30, 2021, shows the Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module “Nauka” (Science) being docked next to the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft on the International Space Station (ISS). – A few hours after docking, Nauka’s propulsive devices unexpectedly fired, forcing personnel aboard the multinational manned orbital platform to fire thrusters on the Russian segment of the station to counter the effect.
The module started firing “inadvertently and unexpectedly, moving the station 45 degrees out of attitude,” NASA said on Twitter. “Recovery operations have regained attitude and the crew is in no danger,” it added. (Photo by Oleg NOVITSKY / Russian Space Agency Roscosmos / AFP)

Last week, though, Russia’s space chief Dmitry Rogozin raised the prospect of pulling out of the partnership in response to US sanctions, allowing the 400 ton structure to come crashing down to Earth while most likely avoiding his country, since its orbit doesn’t fly much over it.

Lueders said: “Northrop Grumman has been offering up a reboost capability, and you know, our SpaceX folks are looking at can we have additional capability.”

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA – SEPTEMBER 15: The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon sit on launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center as it is prepared for the first completely private mission to fly into orbit on September 15, 2021 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. SpaceX is scheduled to launch four private citizens into space at 8:02 pm this evening on a three-day mission. (Photo by JOE RAEDLE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

The last Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo vessel that arrived at the ISS on February 21 was the first to boast a capacity to “reboost” the outpost without Russian help.

On Friday, SpaceX boss Elon Musk tweeted his company’s logo in response to Rogozin’s rhetorical question about who would save the ISS from an uncontrolled de-orbit.

But Lueders stressed that such plans were a contingency measure only.

“It would be very difficult for us to be operating on our own — ISS is an international partnership that was created…with joint dependencies,” she said.

This screen grab taken from the NASA live feed shows the International Space Station taken from the SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft before docking, on April 24. – A recycled SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule with four astronauts aboard, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, was speeding on its way to the International Space Station, where the spacecraft is set to dock early Saturday. (Photo by NASA / AFP)

“As a team, we are looking at where we may have operational flexibilities, but… it would be a sad day for international operations if we can’t continue to peacefully operate in space,” she concluded.

A symbol of post Cold War detente, the ISS has been continuously habited for more than 21 years and has weathered past geopolitical storms, notably Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014. But some observers believe the invasion of Ukraine could hasten the demise of US-Russian space cooperation.

© Agence France-Presse