The Russian Roscosmos space agency has estimé on Saturday that sanctions against Russia could unsettle provision by carburizing of ISS and so to procreate its fall towards the terrestrial surface.
The International Space Station, November 16, 2021. (NASA HANDOUT / MAXPPP) |
A 420 ton threat above our heads? The managing director of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitri Rogozine, has affirmé on Saturday that the international Space station (ISS) could crash on Earth because of the Western sanctions taken against Russia after the plague of Ukraine.
In the centre of concerns, provision of an essential module, who could very be soon perturbé, according to Roscosmos, by measures taken against the regime of Vladimir Putin. Until now relatively preserved from conflicts of the Earth, ISS stays in the middle of of American and European interests and makes from now on the object of unpublished tensions since the launching at the end of 1990s. Franceinfo takes stock of the situation on this geopolitical crisis which takes place as in altitude as 400 kilometres.
On what is based this alert?
In messages sent to space agencies American (Nasa) and European (ESA), the boss of Roscosmos draws a disastrous linked chain reaction, according to him, in sanctions against Russia. For Dmitri Rogozine, these measures indeed risk unsettling the functioning of the Russian vessels which provide with fresh supplies ISS. Problem: the Russian Zvezda module, which allows the station to keep its altitude, could not then play any more its vital role.
"The Russian segment makes sure in the fact that the orbit of the station is corrected (on average eleven times a year), including to avoid the space rubbish", déclaré has so Dmitri Rogozine, publié on the count Twitter on Saturday with a card of the world showing the zone flown by ISS – and where the station could potentially crash. A broadband which includes the United States, the countries of the European Union and only an insignificant part of the Russian territory. This zone where could crash ISS could not be proved by franceinfo.
"The populations of other countries, notably those run by the 'war dogs', should think at the price of sanctions against Roscosmos", Dmitri Rogozine has menacé, who often publishes on social networks of slogans and of assemblages photo mocking Ukraine and his president.
Since bets it on orbit of the it first module of ISS in 1998, Roscosmos has joué an essential role in its enlargement and its service. Three-four times a year, rockets Soyouz take off since the cosmodrome of Baïkonour (Kazakhstan), to project the vessels of provision of the station. The last launching of this type took place on February 15th, is nine days before the plague of Ukraine by Russia.
Can ISS continue working without Russia?
It is not possible currently, but this scenario is actively exploré, by Nasa notably. On the March 1st, the American space agency indeed has déclaré that firms had their services proposé to assure the strategical provision of ISS instead of Russia.
"Our friends of SpaceX look how to improve our capacities (in the field)", has moreover déclaré Kathy Lueders, responsible for manned flights of Nasa, in reference to the firm of the multimillionaire Elon Musk – already well implicated in the American space programmes. February 21st, a freighter vessel Cygnus, conceived by the American conglomerate Northrop Grumman and Frenchman Thales, has livré 3 800 kilogrammes of equipment in ISS. According to its concepteurs, this type of vessel is completely capable of bringing the fuel necessary for the propulsion of the station.