The International Space Station Could Suffer From "Irreparable Failure", Warns Russia - Mashable India

aThe International Space Station could face “irreparable” failures due to aging hardware, according to a former cosmonaut and the chief engineer of Russia’s leading space company, Energia.

Speaking to Russian state media, Mr. Solovyov has said that over 80 percent of on-board in-flight systems on the International Space Stations Russian segment are past their expiration date.

“Literally a day after the [in-flight] systems are fully exhausted, irreparable failure may begin,” he told the BBC.

This comes after Russia announced early this year that it will leave the International Space Station and build its own independent space station. It has said its “earthly disputes” with the United States are putting a strain on the operations of the ISS.

Mr. Solovyov has also warned that small cracks have been discovered in Russia’s oldest cargo module currently still in operation – the Zarya. Launched 20 years ago in 1998, it is mainly used for storage.

The International Space Station, whose first module was launched in November 1998 is a collaboration between space agencies of five different nations – NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada). The space station which orbits the earth at an altitude of roughly 100kms, in a “low-earth” orbit has different modules operated independently by different nations.

After the Space Shuttle program was discontinued in 2011, the capability of NASA and other agencies to service, resupply and repair the ISS was severely limited.

Resupply of cargo and transport of astronauts was done solely through Russia’s Soyuz space modules until SpaceX’s “Dragon” module completed a successful supply mission in early 2017.

Cover Photo: Shutterstock

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2021-09-02 07:25:00Z
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