Friday, March 29

All the logistics of the International Space Station depended on Russia. That changes from today


In 2011, Russia became a central player in space exploration. Projects like the ISS would depend critically on its technology and numerous space missions had to use its means and facilities to reach a successful conclusion. Moscow knew this and took advantage of it. During this decade, many projects tried to break that monopoly; only Space X had been shown to be able to do so.

But it is one thing to be able to do it and quite another to bear the full weight of manned missions on your shoulders. Today was the moment of truth and it has been a success.

The Czar of all… near space. On July 21, 2011, with Atlantis, the US Space Shuttle program closed 135 manned missions and 30 years of space launches. Since that day, no American platform (ship and rocket) has been used to launch manned missions. Since then, no American platform (ship and rocket) capable of launching manned missions had been operational.

Although China also had that technology, the North American Congress prevents NASA from working with them, so Russia became the key ally to continue maintaining things as important as the International Space Station.

And he took advantage of it. The Soyuz bill was getting bigger and bigger. and the price of the space ticket went from 21 million in 2008 to 90 million dollars in October 2019. A few months later, Space X put the first crew in space.

break the monopoly. The 55 million dollars that the ticket cost in the Crew Dragon, made it the best option for Western space programs to become independent from Roscosmos, the Russian space agency. However, the pandemic slowed down (and even stopped) the development of all these programs. The success a few days ago of Axiom 1, the first private mission to the ISS, showed that the alternative was still there. But the key moment of that independence we have lived today.

The moment of truth. In April, in response to Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine, Russia announced that it would suspend its collaboration with the International Space Station. Until then, the possibility of independence from Russia was just that, a possibility. Now it had become a necessity. If the Space X program failed, the near future of the ISS was in jeopardy.

Crew 4. Today at 7:53 GMT from the Kennedy Space Center, a Falcon 9 was to transport four astronauts to the Station in the Dragon Freedom capsule. And, fortunately, it has been a success. They won’t arrive at the station until the end of the day (it takes 16 hours), but completing the launch kicks off one of the biggest reorganizations in near space: the one that will leave Russia without the central role in space exploration. which until now still had.

Because this directly affects passenger transport, yes; but it goes further. Let us remember that ESA was forced to suspend its Exomars mission precisely because collaboration with Russia was essential to its success. The mission, by the way, came out in September. From now on, the space race to control the near orbit of the Earth, establish ourselves permanently on the Moon and even reach Mars becomes more complicated than ever.

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Image | Starlink Mission – Space X

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