By Free Republic | Created at 2024-11-14 03:15:34 | Updated at 2024-11-22 08:01:32
1 week ago
NASA dealing with aging ISS and spacewalk hardware: 'None of our spacesuits are spring chickens'
space.com ^ | 11/12/2024 | Elizabeth Howell
Posted on 11/13/2024 6:43:39 PM PST by BenLurkin
The commander of SpaceX's Crew-8 astronaut mission says that NASA continues to prioritize safety while co-managing an aging space station.
The International Space Station (ISS) and the spacesuit that spacewalking NASA astronauts wear, known as the extravehicular mobility unit (EMU), are both decades old. And it's the age of this hardware that has led to issues with both recently, NASA astronaut and Crew-8 commander Matthew Dominick told reporters on Friday (Nov. 8).
"None of our spacesuits are spring chickens, as we would say, and so we will expect to see some hardware issues with repeated use," Dominick said at a press conference about Crew-8 livestreamed from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The four Crew-8 astronauts returned to Earth on Oct. 25.
...
As for the ISS leak, he said that NASA astronauts and Russian cosmonauts have a "very open and transparent relation" that extends also to the respective mission controls in Houston and Moscow. Russia keeps a hatch closed between the U.S. and Russian sides of the ISS as a precaution, he emphasized, saying it really only affects the crew during unloading of certain cargo vehicles.
"It's not a comfortable thing, but it is the best agreement between all the smart people on both sides, and it's something that we as a crew live with and enact," Dominick said, adding that the ISS crew remains "in good hands" with the current situation.
NASA plans to replace the ISS with commercial space stations in the early 2030s, and is also working on next-generation spacesuits in partnership with industry for both the ISS and the moon. Collins Aerospace was expected to create the newer ISS suits, but the company withdrew from its contract in June because its anticipated timeline "would not support the space station's schedule and NASA's mission objectives."
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: collinsaerospace; crewdragon; elonmusk; falcon9; iss; nasa; spacex
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1 posted on 11/13/2024 6:43:39 PM PST by BenLurkin
To: BenLurkin
That's what happens when you spend your all your maintenance budget on tawny DEI projects instead of equipment repair and upkeep.
2 posted on 11/13/2024 6:48:40 PM PST by Governor Dinwiddie ( O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious, and His mercy endureth forever. — Psalm 106)
To: BenLurkin
It’s a tragedy just waiting to happen. Just get everyone off, shut it down and let it molder until it disintegrates (hopefully into small pieces that burn up in the atmosphere).
I don’t’ think even Elon can salvage this wreckage.
3 posted on 11/13/2024 7:09:18 PM PST by twyn1 (“An evil man will burn his own country to the ground to rule over the ashes”I thin)
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