On Feb. 24, Biden held a news conference on Russia's military operations against Ukraine, saying sanctions would be imposed on Russia and would hit Russia's aerospace industry, including space programs such as spacecraft manufacturing.
U.S. President Joe Biden |Whitehouse.gov in a Feb. 24 speech at the White House
Dmitry Rogozin, president of the "Russian Space" State Group Corporation, responded later: If the sanctions touch cooperation with Russia, the International Space Station will face uncontrollable de-orbit and fall into Europe or the United States.
Is it possible for the U.S. orbital section and the Russian orbital segment of the International Space Station to separate and work separately?
There is no such possibility.
If the two orbital segments choose not to continue to cooperate, the end of the International Space Station may indeed crash on Earth. That is, Russia itself does not want this space station, so Rogozin's words are more like a "suicide" threat.
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The International Space Station (ISS) is a multinational collaborative project whose construction is divided into two parts: the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) and the United States Orbital Segment (USOS). The former is operated by Russia, while the latter is operated by the United States and other countries.
The latest configuration of the International Space Station on February 21 shows the Russian orbital segment on the left and the Orbital Velocity in the U.S. orbital segment| on the right
The orbital segments on both sides are so tightly integrated that they require services from each other to continue to operate in space.
All of the command, control and life support systems for the Russian orbital sector are now completely replicated from the U.S. orbital sector. In addition, the Russian orbital section has been dependent on the U.S. orbital sector for some of its electricity due to insufficient funding due to the initial planning of the solar panel array.
Of course, the United States can threaten to "pull electricity" to the Russian orbital section, but in this way, the Russian orbital segment, which is not enough to provide propulsion support. Given that the entire International Space Station relies on the propulsion system of the Russian orbital segment Progress spacecraft to maintain the orbital altitude, and only by relying on the Russian orbital segment can the space station make large-scale attitude adjustments, "pulling power" is obviously a self-deprecating operation.
The leftmost part of the space station in the previous figure is the Russian Progress MS-18 cargo spacecraft, and its engine on the butt is responsible for maintaining the orbital altitude of the entire space station. ｜Orbital Velocity
The Recent launch of the U.S. Cygnus Cargo Spacecraft, which docked with the International Space Station, although it also has the propulsion capability to help maintain the orbital height of the space station, but because it docks in the middle of the space station, it does not help much for attitude adjustment.
In short, the U.S.-Russia orbital section of the International Space Station cannot be separated. If you have to forcibly separate the family, neither of them will be able to operate independently, and both will fall back into the Earth's atmosphere and burn up.
It must be mentioned that after the international space station was decommissioned, it was intended to fall into the earth's atmosphere, and the control responsible for the ground command of the fall was also in the hands of Russia. By then, 16% of the mass is expected to fall to the ground, between 24267 kg and 78585 kg. Under normal circumstances, the ISS should crash under control near the so-called spacecraft graveyard in the South Pacific.
Islet McCarthy, | of the International Space Station
However, as the United States regains control of the manned space launch capability, the situation that relied on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for more than a decade to send people to the sky is no longer the case, and the plan of the United States and Russia to exchange astronauts to take each other's spacecraft to the International Space Station may be affected (such as not issuing visas to each other's astronauts... ) and temporarily suspended.
In this case, the two sides can even ask their respective astronauts to "go back to their respective homes" and then close the middle hatch, so that the us-Russia orbital section, which is essentially inseparable, is artificially separated into two separate space stations. However, astronauts who have worked and lived together in space for a long time are not expected to carry out such instructions. In addition, in the event of a sudden danger, this situation is not conducive to the self-help of astronauts.
Therefore, at least in the case of the International Space Station, the United States and Russia should continue to maintain a certain cooperative relationship. Otherwise, I'm afraid it will really be like what Rogozin said in Telegram's response —
"If you prevent cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from being uncontrolled and falling into the U.S. or Europe?"
It seems that this is not a hard bar Biden, to some extent it is already a threat.
Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space, marveled at the beauty of the Earth when he saw the Earth in orbit. "Folks, we want to protect and increase her beauty, not to destroy her!"
Hopefully, space will not become the next battlefield for human beings to fight after the beautiful earth...
American astronaut Mark Vande Hei overlooks the Earth in the dome module of the International Space Station, and the window is Russia's Soyuz MS-19 manned spacecraft. He will return to Earth in March this year in the Russian spacecraft. ｜NASA
Author: Steed
Edit: Black Jio Sister
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