WASHINGTON (Archyde.com) – NASA and the White House have been secretly working on a contingency plan for the International Space Station (ISS) since late last year, it has emerged. Nine people familiar with the matter said. The move comes as relations with Russia began to deteriorate before Russia invaded Ukraine.
NASA’s contingency plans show that the United States is struggling to deal with Russia, a key ISS partner. NASA’s efforts to maintain its 20-year-old partnership with Russia on the ISS as one of the few remaining civilian partnerships between the two superpowers is undermining.
Contingency plans prepared by U.S. authorities include (1) procedures for withdrawing all astronauts and (2) critical equipment provided by the Russian space agency in the event that Russia suddenly withdraws from the ISS program. and (3) the possibility of dismantling the ISS several years earlier than planned.
Senior NASA and White House officials have long acknowledged the existence of a contingency plan, but have avoided discussing it publicly to avoid escalating tensions with Russia. Rather, NASA officials emphasize its close ties with Russia’s state-owned space company Roscosmos.
“It’s clear we are very committed to maintaining the relationship, but we need to make sure there is a plan in place,” Kathy Rieders, director of NASA’s spaceflight division, said in an interview last week. We are NASA and we always expect the unexpected.”
The ISS was designed more than 20 years ago by NASA and Roscosmos in a way that complemented each other’s technology. NASA provides the ISS’s balancing gyroscopes and solar arrays to power it, while Roscosmos is responsible for controlling the propulsion systems that keep the football-field-sized ISS in orbit.
US space companies such as Boeing, SpaceX and Northrop Grumman are participating in the program. Boeing has a team of experts looking at ways to control the ISS without Russian thrusters, one of the sources said.
Two sources said NASA has been working on a draft for the past few weeks to formally ask participating companies how to get the ISS out of orbit ahead of schedule in preparation for Russia’s departure. Russia controls thrusters from Moscow. Thrusters play an important role in re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere when the ISS reaches the end of its life.
Russian media reported last week, citing newly appointed head of Roscosmos Borisov, that Russia had not set a date for its withdrawal from the ISS, but that the withdrawal procedure was “imposed on us.” It is said that it will be done “in strict accordance with the conditions that exist.” The intergovernmental agreement requires any partner to give one year’s notice of its intention to withdraw.
Roscosmos was not immediately available for comment.
NASA told Archyde.com it had been asked by Roscosmos two years ago if it might provide a spacecraft to assist in the deorbit process.
NASA declined to comment on the specifics of the contingency plans it is considering, but said, “We will continue to explore new capabilities of the ISS and plan a smooth transition towards the goal of commercial operations in low-Earth orbit. I do,” he explained.
The ISS is expected to operate until 2030, and NASA is working to accelerate the development of a commercial space station to replace the ISS.
NASA’s contingency plan focuses on controlling the ISS without Russian thrusters, sources said.
Northrop Grumman used a modified version of its Cygnus supply ship to maneuver the ISS at a demonstration in June, showing how such a technique might be an alternative to Russian thrusters.
A Northrop spokesperson said all Cygnus might be equipped with this orbit correction capability if requested by NASA in the future. The tests, part of an effort NASA began in 2018, have sped up the pace amid heightened tensions with Russia, sources said.
SpaceX, the private spacecraft company founded by Tesla’s Elon Musk, is also researching similar orbit correction capabilities, two sources said.
NASA and the White House started their contingency plans in late 2021, when relations between the United States and Russia soured, four U.S. officials said.
The plan began when the Russian Ministry of Defense conducted an anti-satellite missile launch test in November last year, destroying its own satellite, scattering a large amount of debris near the ISS, and causing the astronauts to evacuate to shelters. It is said that it was following
Still, senior officials from both the U.S. and Russia have reiterated their cooperation in space.
“We were able to maintain our relationship following the horrific and violent invasion of Ukraine because it’s good for both the United States and Russia,” said Rose Gottemoller, a former national security adviser in the Clinton administration.
NASA sent a small team to Moscow in July to finalize a long-controversial agreement to send astronauts to the ISS, according to people familiar with the matter.
On the other hand, some Russian space development officials have pointed out domestic financial pressure.
Roscosmos’ Borisov said last week that experts believed the ISS would experience an “avalanche” of technical problems following 2024. After that, he said the costs of maintaining Russia’s responsibilities would be huge, and that it would be “economically advantageous” for Russia to seek to build its own space station.
(Joey Roulette reporter)
