Thursday, March 05, 2015

NASA Making Plans for Russians Seceding From International Space Station


NASA is mulling plans to replace the International Space Station’s Zvezda propulsion module in case the Russian government makes good on its recently announced plan to abandon the orbital outpost after 2024, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said March 5.

“We are responsible for the day-to-day operations and control of the international space station [but] they [Russia] provide propulsion,” Bolden said during a House Appropriations commerce, justice, science subcommittee hearing. “[W]e are planning right now for them to at some point to take away the propulsion module.”

Bolden did not elaborate on the agency’s plans, and NASA spokesman Allard Beutel, reached by email March 5, had no immediate comment.

The hearing, called to discuss the $18 billion budget the White House requested for NASA in 2016, took place about a week after the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, said it would remove all Russian modules from ISS after 2024 and use them as the core of a new space station.

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