NASA looking for Russia's alternative for keeping ISS in orbit; SpaceX likely candidate

NASA Associate Administrator Kathy Lueders has informed that the relations between Russia and the US have not been affected in the International Space Station (ISS) owing to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis. Speaking at a news conference on February 28, she admitted that operating the ISS without Russia's support would be difficult. Leuders emphasised that NASA is looking for alternatives for "more operational flexibility" and revealed that Northrop Grumman and Elon Musk's SpaceX are the candidates. She said that the former is ready to provide "a reboost capability" to keep the ISS in orbit and the latter can also assist NASA in the orbital operations. 

The ISS stays in orbit using the thrusters of spacecraft docked outside the space station. Currently, it is the Russian modules that conduct essential boosting maneouvers and keep the ISS from de-orbiting. However, it is worth noting that Leuders stated there are no plans to replace Russia as of now. However, this might soon be the case as Roscosmos has not planned to operate in the ISS beyond 2024, CNBC reported. It is also worth mentioning that the NASA official confirmed that the US agency is still planning to bring its astronaut Mark Vande Hei to Earth in a Soyuz spacecraft next month. In addition to this, the two countries were also working on an agreement to launch the first female and first Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina to the ISS in SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft.  

US & Russian astronauts cooperating even amid Russia-Ukraine crisis

The NASA official said that there are no indications of non-cooperation from the Russian cosmonauts and teams of both countries are still training together. “We are not getting any indications at a working level that our [Russian] counterparts are not committed to ongoing operations. Teams are still talking together, we’re still doing training together, we’re still working together”, she said as per CNBC. 

The ISS currently has seven astronauts in total– four Americans, two Russian and one European astronaut. Needless to say, the fate of the ISS depends on the collective efforts of America's NASA and Russia's Roscosmos as astronauts of both factions help keep the ISS in orbit.

Image: Twitter/@Space_Station