Astronauts Aboard International Space Station Told to Prepare for Urgent Evacuation
NASA uncovers 50 ‘areas of concern’ including leaks and cracks on the 25-year-old space station.
Recent reports indicate that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and its Russian counterpart Roscosmos are facing serious safety concerns on the International Space Station (ISS), potentially leading to preparations for an emergency evacuation.
NASA’s astronauts aboard the International Space Station have been told to prepare for an urgent evacuation amid growing safety concerns.
The US space agency and its Russian counterpart, Roscomos, are tracking 50 ‘areas of concern’ related to a growing leak aboard the station.
NASA is now calling the cracks in a Russian service module a ‘top safety risk’ – escalating the threat rating to five out of five.
Astronauts have been warned to stay in the American section when the module is open so they can be close to their spacecraft in case of an emergency evacuation.
The most pressing issue is an ongoing air leak in the Zvezda Service Module in the Russian portion of the station, which has been tracked for the past five years.
The leaks’ exact cause is not known, nor is it clear exactly where the air is leaving the space station. Both space agencies have narrowed their focus to internal and external welds that may have deteriorated, according to the inspector general.
The U.S. space agency has been working closely with Roscosmos to identify the source of the leaks and ensure crew safety, Free said. Since the last round of patches over the summer, “the leakage rate has gone down,” he said.
“We’ve asked them to minimize how long that hatch is open, and they are minimizing it,” Free said. “We’ve come to a compromise that they close it in the evening.”
NASA has determined the station remains safe enough for the 11 people aboard. Still, the agency decided its astronauts need more options in the event that a rapid departure from the space station becomes necessary.
The developments currently indicate the space agencies are preparing for a worst-case scenario, hoping the station lasts until its slated 2030 decommissioning. The US and Russia are having troubles reaching an agreement as to the conditions in which evacuation of the station would be deemed necessary.
NASA and Roscomos are collaborating to monitor the leak and try to identify the source of the issue.
However, the two agencies are yet to agree on when the leak rate would be considered ‘untenable’.
In the same OIG report, NASA also raised the concern that the space station could be seriously damaged by tiny pieces of material in orbit – escalating the risk rating to the highest level.
The agency wrote: ‘NASA considers the threat of micrometeoroids and orbital debris (MMOD) a top risk to crew safety, the ISS structure, visiting vehicles, and sustained ISS operations.’
Over the past two decades, the ISS has been a hub for groundbreaking scientific research. The microgravity environment has enabled significant advancements in studying diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, asthma, and heart disease. The unique conditions allow researchers to observe cellular and molecular changes impossible on Earth.
Without the interference of Earth’s gravity, Alzheimer’s researchers have studied protein clusters that can cause neurodegenerative diseases. Cancer researchers studied the growth of endothelial cells on the space station.
Endothelial cells help supply blood in the body, and tumors need that blood to form. Space station-grown cells grow better than those on Earth and can help test new cancer treatments.
Why do this in space? Studying cells, organoids, and protein clusters without the influence of gravity – or even the forces of container walls – can help researchers get a clearer understanding of their properties, behaviors, and responses to treatments.
The ISS website lists 19 other important research contributions and discoveries made aboard the station. Hopefully, the precautions will not be needed, and all the astronauts and researchers can return home safely and complete their important work.
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Politics of Space X vs Boeing aside, are there any spacecraft that can carry eleven passengers plus a pilot? I’m pretty ignorant about the state of space travel these days, but I don’t think so.
If not how many craft will be needed?
Starship.
Has a Starship ever landed from space?
Starship is not yet a fully developed and tested platform.
you’ll have to ask a muslim b/c that is who the obamabiden cartel says nasa is run by
Former President Barack Obama told his NASA chief that the agency’s “foremost” goal was to improve relations with the Muslim world and make Muslims “feel good.”
In an interview with Al-Jazeera on June 30, 2010, Charlie Bolden said that when he took over as NASA administrator, Obama “charged me with three things.”
And third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math and engineering.”
Needless to say, the idea that Obama wanted NASA — the illustrious space agency of the greatest nation on earth — to focus its energies on making Muslims “feel good” didn’t go over very well.
SpaceX Dragons can carry four apiece, and Soyuz carries three. According to NASA, the only man-rated ships currently at ISS are one Dragon and one Soyuz, with a total capacity of seven. In addition, there are three cargo ships docked.
Also, according to NASA, there are only seven crew currently aboard, three Roscosmos cosmonauts and four American astronauts. There were eleven, and two Dragons and the Soyuz, until the Crew 8 Dragon returned to Earth last month.
The importance of the space station was to give the space shuttle someplace to go.
The Hubble telescope mirror focus upgrade and gyro stabilizer repair missions.
Deployment of commercial and military satellites.
Undisclosed military mission objectives.
This is actually not what the story is reporting (which is, I think, a week old). The story makes it sound like they just discovered this, but it’s actually been the state of affairs since last year some time. It’s why they were concerned about the Starliner capsule issues, since they didn’t have enough space on the emergency escape Crew Dragon for everyone.
And this is obligatory.
Seems like they should have taken that ride that Elon offered them a while back.
The 2 stranded by Boeing did
The current crew on board the space station numbers seven people. There are two spacecraft docked at the space station. A Soyuz can hold three people and the SpaceX Crew Dragon can hold four. There is a seat for everyone now, in spite of the Starliner issue. The space station has generally had “lifeboats” with seats for everyone docked, but the Starliner issue definitely created a concern until the latest Crew Dragon docked.
https://whoisinspace.com/
1 p1cunnin –
“The current crew on board the space station numbers seven people. “</em
The article, above says that there are eleven people –
"NASA has determined the station remains safe enough for the 11 people aboard…
Is the article incorrect?
Just light up a cigarette in the cabin and look outside to see where the smoke is coming out.
There’s probably nothing better than having a cigarette in space and now it can save the space station, too!!
HA! awesomesauce 🙂
Really? I’ve never heard of anything important coming from it. Any advance that depended on the space station would have been trumpeted like crazy. Look at what they did with Tang, and that was just poor-tasting orange-style drink.
I love the space station and colonizing space is the most important thing Man can do, but the research angle is a non-starter so far as I can see. The colonization aspect is the main point and that is more than enough to justify it. Of course, anytime someone mentions “colonize” these days they are set upon by the myriad of weirdos, morons, and emotional cripples on the left.
They’ve studied the affects of microgravity on vision and it’s pretty fascinating. They found that without some sort of gravity anyone sent to Mars would arrive blind due to the pressure of the skull on the eyeballs which stretched and damaged the optic nerves. There is a Heidelberg ophthalmic camera on the station that takes 3D images of the eye and then compare images from retests. Basically establish a baseline on earth then measure all the changes at microscopic levels on the space station.
Dang. I didn’t know that, thanks.
We really need at least three purpose-built, two-way starliner (with 1g rotation living compartments) transports for Mars and moon colonization projects.
The long term effects of zero G on human and animal physiology. That’s important knowledge for Mars/moon colonization project planning.
I think the Russians already had lots of that done with the old Mir space station.
Yes, there has been research done on the ISS but nothing groundbreaking. That sort of research is not the reason for the ISS.
I need to rephrase that; that sort of research IS the reason for the ISS but it is not something that affects lives on the ground, really. It is the mission, itself – to help further colonize space. But it isn’t turning out anything that is having any great impacts on Earth. But the ISS is not there to have great impacts on Earth, only to help us get off of Earth for extended periods of time – lifetimes.
Dementia Joe is eating ice cream. No one is in charge. This is what happens.
micro-meteorites?
Uber from Elon?
It’s good to have at least one lifeboat seat per astronaut, but after Starliner, maybe it would be a good idea not to count the arriving capsule. Maybe send up an empty Crew Dragon to serve as a lifeboat in case the arriving capsule can’t return with crew aboard.
What does a Crew Dragon cost? Probably less than four astronauts.