ISS to be deorbited in 2020
The head of the Russian space agency said today that ISS will be deorbited in 2020, as agreed to by the governments running it.
Wanna bet? They are only now starting to do the research the station is best designed for, and learning how to live in space for years is going to take years. Come 2020, that work will hardly be done. Moreover, the impossibility of replacing ISS without a shuttle to haul up large modules and trusses will make very appealing the idea of keeping the present station in operation.
Then again, everything I just wrote is simple common sense, and who ever expected common sense from these governments?
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The head of the Russian space agency said today that ISS will be deorbited in 2020, as agreed to by the governments running it.
Wanna bet? They are only now starting to do the research the station is best designed for, and learning how to live in space for years is going to take years. Come 2020, that work will hardly be done. Moreover, the impossibility of replacing ISS without a shuttle to haul up large modules and trusses will make very appealing the idea of keeping the present station in operation.
Then again, everything I just wrote is simple common sense, and who ever expected common sense from these governments?
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Since as things are going now, in 2020 we will have no human space flight capability; the Russians will have a say in what happens to the ISS and we will not. I am not saying this is a good thing, only a true thing.
The Russians have already said if we throw away our $100 billion investment and future, they will detach their modules and put them together as their own station. They, like China are in space to stay.
Art Harman says:
Posted July 27, 2011 at 1:27 PM
“The Russians have already said if we throw away our $100 billion investment and future, they will detach their modules and put them together as their own station. They, like China are in space to stay.”
And sadly, it appears, we are not.
> … impossibility of replacing ISS without a shuttle to haul up large modules and trusses..
You’re overlooking the impossibility of MAINTAINING ISS without a shuttle to haul up large modules and trusses, as well as install and do big refit/construction without a shuttle. Theres some serious concern over our ability to even keep it going until 2020.
Since at the moment the US seems unlikely to have any usable maned launch capacity by 2020 – were in no possition to decide.