ISS - International Space Station emblem.
March 7, 2022
Russia is once again threatening the international community with abandoning and dropping the international space station on our heads. In a celebratory video created by the Russian space agency and published by Ria Novosti, you can see how they leave the ISS with its propulsion module so that it inevitably falls to earth.
Without the Russian module, which contains the engines that keep the space station in orbit, the ISS would have no way to correct its orbit and would fall uncontrollably to Earth, potentially impacting Europe, the United States, India, China or Russia itself.
Image above: When Dmitry Rogozin said the ISS does not fly over Russian in a crazy twitter rant he was wrong, it flies over plenty of Russia and all planet Earth. Image Credits: Twitter/Rogozin.
The organization that has published the Roscosmos video is Ria Novosti, a news agency originally founded as the Soviet Information Office by the USSR in 1941. It was one of the great propaganda machines of the communist regime, creating Russian Today in 2005 and Putin he reorganized it in 2013 to “increase its effectiveness as a mass communication apparatus of the state.”
Rogozin's new threat
As the NASA Watch Twitter account points out, “RIA Novosti, controlled by the Russian government, published a video on Telegram made by Roscosmos where cosmonauts say goodbye to [astronaut] Mark Vande Hei on [the international space station. they leave and then the Russian segment separates from the rest of the ISS.” For NASA Watch, which has covered the US space agency since 1996, "[Dmitry] Rogozin clearly threatens the ISS program." This is the video:
Russia threatens to shoot down the space station again
It is an operation that is not as easy as Roscosmos paints it in the video published by RIA Novosti. It is a complex disconnection process that would take some time but it would not be impossible. It is not clear what the order would be for Western astronauts in the event that Russia decided to separate from the station or what measures NASA, ESA, JAXA and the Canadian space agency would take in this eventuality.
NASA countermeasures
NASA and SpaceX — Elon Musk has already said publicly that SpaceX would be willing to “save the ISS” from the Russian threat — could launch the Interim ISS Control Module as a patch to replace the Russian module, but it would only be temporary. This module was built by the US Navy Laboratory for NASA in the late 1990s, to be used as a control unit if the Russians did not reach the ISS in time with their Zvezda module.
Image above: The interim control module developed in the late 1990s and now in storage (NASA).
This module — which is currently in storage waiting to be commissioned in a few weeks — is an adapted segment of a Titan rocket. It could only be used for a few months because it was not designed for continuous use and cannot be recharged with new fuel.
The interim module is also not powerful enough to perform maneuvers with the full mass of the ISS. In other words: the West does not have a solution right now, although it would not be unreasonable to imagine that they could quickly build one using existing components.
Rogozin continues his verbal escalation
Roscosmos — in the mouth of its leader Dmitry Rogozin — threatened to bring down the ISS at the end of February, after the first measures to punish the Russian aerospace industry by the Biden administration and the European Union. Rogozin is the administrator responsible for the decline and decrepitude of the Russian space agency since he took over the reins in 2018.
Rogozin said on Twitter that "if [the US] blocks cooperation with us, who will save the International Space Station (ISS) from uncontrolled orbit and crashing into the US or... Europe?" Rogozin hammers home with his usual threatening language: "There is also the possibility that a 500-tonne structure will fall on India and China. Do you want to threaten them with such a prospect? The ISS does not fly over Russia, therefore all risks are yours. Are you ready for it?"
Rogozin and Putin in front of a model of the failed new Roscosmos space center
More recently Rogozin personally threatened Musk on Russia Today, accusing him of siding with the Ukrainian side because he, like the rest of the West, is "chronically jealous" of Russia. On that occasion he also veiled threats to all those who help Ukraine: "Look how right now they are competing with each other to defecate in our relations, and who is going to clean up all the mess afterwards? It is very dangerous what is happening now."
This new propaganda video will serve no purpose except to cheer up Putin's loyalists and stir up the spirits of his international space partners, who may take him at his word and are already considering expelling the Russians and their modules full of outdated and dangerous technology. technical failures. In fact, it is one of the worst kept secrets that NASA has not trusted Roscosmos for years and hence its commitment to SpaceX and the rest of the players in the North American space race.
Former Astronaut Scott Kelly Tells Russian Space Chief Dmitry Rogozin to Find McDonald’s Job
Former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia’s space program Roscosmos, are caught up in a bitter feud on Twitter.
Scott Kelly vs Dmitry Rogozin
Rogozin is no stranger to making inflammatory remarks on Twitter. Given the predicament his country’s space corporation now finds itself in — Rogozin has made sure to burn every last bridge with his comments — the new feud arguably tracks perfectly.
The feud started around the time when Rogozin gloated about removing the flags of foreign countries from a ready-to-launch rocket last week at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, one of the many recent signs of Russia actively distancing itself from cooperation with international space partners.
“Without those flags and the foreign exchange they bring in, your space program won’t be worth a damn,” Kelly tweeted in Russian at the time. “Maybe you can find a job at McDonald’s, if McDonald’s still exists in Russia.”
In one late February tweet, Kelly pleaded with Russian president Vladimir Putin to put an end to the violence.
“Mr. Putin, in 2011 I spoke with you from the ISS after my brother’s wife was shot,” he wrote at the time. “You seemed kind and sincere and asked what you could do for me.”
“You can stop this madness,” he added. “I’m afraid for the Ukrainians and for my Russian friends. Everyone will lose.”
Meanwhile, Rogozin has been embracing a very different strategy, even posting a deepfaked meme comparing Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky to Adolf Hitler. (Note from the editor: President Zelensky is of Jewish descent).
It’s a sad state of affairs. With its violent invasion of Ukraine, Russia is actively cutting itself off from the international community.
Rogozin is only stoking the fire, and severing any ties the country’s space program had left, with his comments. And feuding with former NASA astronauts likely won’t help.
Editor's note:
Nothing more to say than what I have already written in my previous notes. All I wish, is for peace to return and for these (crazy) bad leaders to end up in prison for life, where their place is in this world. Roland Berga.
Related articles:
Russia stops space cooperation with US: 'Let them fly on brooms'
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/03/russia-stops-space-cooperation-with-us.html
Russia halts launch of European satellites in retaliation for sanctions
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/02/russia-halts-launch-of-european.html
ESA statement regarding cooperation with Russia following a meeting with Member States on 28 February 2022
https://www.esa.int/Newsroom/Press_Releases/ESA_statement_regarding_cooperation_with_Russia_following_a_meeting_with_Member_States_on_28_February_2022
Head of ESA Josef Aschbacher about cooperation with Roscosmos
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/02/head-of-esa-josef-aschbacher-about.html
Russia sells Soyuz space capsule and make movie in ISS (Financial problems v/s alternative sources)
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2021/05/russia-sells-soyuz-space-capsule-and.html
Amur space (The failed Cosmodrome project)
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2013/04/amur-space.html
Related links:
ROSCOSMOS: https://www.roscosmos.ru/
European Space Agency (ESA): https://www.esa.int/
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): https://www.nasa.gov/
International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Images, Video, Text, Credits: Ria Novosti/Vanguardia/Off World/Victor Tangermann/Twitter/Translation: Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.
Peace on this crazy world. Greetings, Orbiter.ch
