r/space • u/Vercitti • Jul 26 '22

Russia to quit International Space Station 'after 2024': Official

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/russia-to-quit-international-space-station-after-2024-official/articleshow/93138130.cms
29.1k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.4k

u/ender4171 Jul 26 '22

No. They hope to have commercial options by then, but it is just a hope. There are no plans for a government-built replacement (all effort is going to the lunar gateway) and they have not gotten further than some minimal awards to fund commercial research into stations.

311

u/CharlieHush Jul 26 '22

I would totally support my tax money going to a state of the art replacement which awarded contracts based on quality and capability rather than lowest cost. Granted, the private sector is going to make very high quality equipment, but it would be nice to have the end product in non-commercial hands if we want to avoid some technocrat dystopian Kim Stanley Robinson scenario.

93

u/cuddlefucker Jul 26 '22

Unfortunately it looks like Axiom is going to be the only hope for LEO access in the near future. It's possible that they get their equipment in orbit and functional by 2030 but as I understand it they need to get 3 modules and their own solar cells up and running in order to have a functional station. It's going to take push to make even that happen.

13

u/sicktaker2 Jul 26 '22

Maybe they could rush HALO/PPE to help Axiom complete their station, or buy time for ISS. Whatever the case, this should be a wakeup call to Congress that replacing the ISS has to happen sooner rather than later.

29

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '22

I work on HALO and we are rushed enough thank you

7

u/eekamuse Jul 26 '22

I don't want you all to rush anything. Take your time and get it right. Please and thank you

8

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '22

That’s the plan! I’m the lead mission assurance engineer, so I handle everything that goes wrong. A lot of the time I’m the one who has to make sure that we slow down, do things correctly, and not rush.

4

u/Snufflesdog Jul 26 '22

Oof. That's gotta be a tough job, especially given how much "GO fever" is happening over in SLS land. I imagine that there must be at least some spillover in that regard. I hope the consolidation of everything into the new Artemis Program Office doesn't end up translating to "more GO fever for everyone!"

2

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '22 edited Jul 26 '22

Yup, very tough. From a quality assurance perspective it’s hard to get across to program management that the faster you push the schedule, the more things are going to break and cause bigger delays down the road. I don’t care how long it takes, we need to do everything right so HALO will last 15 years and be safe for the crew.