The state of the ISS is so alarming that the United States and Russia have sat at the table for the first time in eight years

You have to look back until October 2018 to find the last time that NASA’s top people and her Russian counterpart, Roscosmos, the faces were seen. The launch of the Crew 11 mission has served as an excuse for them to meet again.

A meeting to save the furniture. The new general director of Roscosmos, Dmitry Bakanov, traveled for the first time to the United States last week to witness the launch of the SPACEX CREW-11 MISSIONin which two American astronauts, one Japanese and a Russian one flew to the International Space Station.

Bakanov took advantage of the trip to meet with NASA’s acting administrator, Sean Duffy. On the table, the future of a space station that ages by leaps and bounds and The road map for withdrawal in 2030.

NASA and ROSCOSMOS are needed. In a global context where war and other geopolitical tensions have affected almost all areas of cooperation, the International Space Station and the exchange of seats in Crew Dragon and Soyuz ships remains one of the few bridges standing. But this has been the first high -level meeting in almost eight years, especially since the previous Chief of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, adopted a belligerent rhetoric against his US partners.

According to the Russian state agency TassBakanov and Duffy agreed to extend the shared use of the International Space Station until 2028, as well as a joint process for exorbitation in 2030. “The conversation was quite well,” Bakanov said.

The US agency Associated Press He says that both leaders pointed out the need to maintain cooperation in space despite their “strong discrepancies” on Earth. They also agreed to seek the approval of their respective presidents for future joint projects, including lunar and exploration of deep space.

The ISS falls apart. This “we have to talk” is not accidental. It occurs at a time when the state of the International Space Station is a matter of “deep concern”, as noted by the NASA Aerospace Security Advisory Panel in April. The Committee described the coming years as “The riskiest period“Of the ISS in all its existence.

One of the most serious and persistent problems are Air leaks in the Russian module Zvezdafirst detected in 2019. Despite the multiple attempts to repair them, the module continues to lose air, a qualified problem with the highest level of risk of NASA.

To this we must also add other ailments of a structure with almost 30 years components. Lack of spare parts for critical systems, space costumes with technology from the 70s that have caused several incidents, and constant problems with bathroomsamong other headaches.

Pension plan. The common denominator of these risks is a huge budget deficit. No government wants to allocate more money to the International Space Station when the priority is to finance future lunar missions and commercial stations. More than a shy thaw, the meeting between Bakanov and Duffy represents the imperative need to jointly manage the last years of the ISS, the largest symbol of international cooperation outside the earth.

One of the Keys to this approach It is the contract of almost one billion dollars that NASA awarded Spacex to develop a ship that tow the station towards a safe reentry on the Pacific Ocean. Before Spacex, the ISS partners had considered using Russian progress ships for this task, an option that Roscosos seems to have put back on the table. Be that as it may, the retirement of the ISS already has its date insured by the end of this decade.

Image | ROSCOSMOS

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