NASA Exploring Ways To Keep ISS In Orbit Without Russia Onboard, Says Senior Official

A senior NASA official said Monday that the US space agency does not see any immediate signs of Moscow withdrawing from the US-Russian space cooperation, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

New Delhi: NASA’s top official on human spaceflight said Monday that the United States space agency is exploring ways to keep the International Space Station (ISS) in orbit without Russian help. The senior official also said that NASA does not see any immediate signs of Moscow withdrawing from the US-Russian space cooperation, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Kathy Lueders, who is currently heading NASA's human spaceflight program as the Associate Administrator of the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, said during a news conference on Monday that operations on the research platform were proceeding “nominally”.

Lueders said "we're not getting any indications at a working level that our counterparts are not committed”, according to reports.

"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," an AFP report quoted Lueders as saying. 

Lueders said that the orbiting research laboratory is yet unaffected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a report by CNBC.

Lueders added that the NASA and Roscosmos “teams are still talking together". She said "we’re still doing training together, we’re still working together”.

The space station is physically divided into two sections. These are: the United States Orbital Segment and the Russian Orbital Segment. Together, the U.S. and Russia keep the research laboratory continuously staffed with astronauts and cosmonauts. 

The roles of each nation’s segments are mutually dependent on each other.

The United States supplies power and life support to the orbital laboratory, while Russia is responsible for propulsion and keeping the space station afloat. 

Russia keeps the space station in orbit by using docked Progress spacecraft to periodically give the station a boost to maintain its altitude, approximately 250 miles (400 kilometres) high.

The US space agency expects to continue operating the orbital laboratory until 2030. Meanwhile, Roscosmos has not renewed its role beyond 2024, according to reports.

Last week, Russia’s space chief Dmitry Rogozin raised the prospect of pulling out of the US-Russian space partnership in response to US sanctions.

He posted a rhetorical question on Twitter that if cooperation with Russia is blocked, who will save the ISS from an uncontrolled orbit. He threatened that “monstrous consequences” could include the ISS de-orbiting.

Rogozin further said that there is also the option of dropping a 500-ton structure to India and China. “The ISS does not fly over Russia, so all the risks are yours,” he wrote.

In response to Rogozin's rhetorical question about who would save the ISS from an uncontrolled de-orbit, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted his company's logo. 

Lueders said that Northrop Grumman has been offering up a reboost capability, and added that SpaceX is looking at how the company can assist NASA with the orbital laboratory.

Lueders noted that “currently there is no plan” to replace Russia’s role on the ISS.

NASA’s head of human spaceflight also said that the US space agency still plans to return NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei from the ISS, via Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft, in about a month.

On February 21, a Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo vessel arrived at the ISS. This vessel was the first to boast a capacity to "reboost" the orbital outpost without Russian help.

However, Lueders said that it would be “very difficult for us to be operating on our own”. She said  that the ISS is an international partnership that was created with joint dependencies, according to the AFP report.

"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," the AFP report quoted Lueders as saying.

The orbital laboratory has weathered past geopolitical storms, particularly Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014. According to some observers, however, the invasion of Ukraine could hasten the demise of US-Russian space cooperation. 

Russia's space agency has yet to fly a cosmonaut on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. However, Roscosmos and SpaceX have been working on an agreement that would launch Russia’s  Anna Kikina to space aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft, according to reports.