ISS crew evacuated from US part Space Station

[Still Waters]

A toxic leak has broken out in the US-made sector of the International Space Station. The crew is safe, but has been forced to isolate the contaminated unit and take refuge in the Russian sector. Houston and the ISS crew are considering how to respond.

According to preliminary information from the ISS the incident was caused by a discharge of ammonia, Interfax reports.

http://rt.com/news/2...emission-space/

[SHaYap]

I hope the rescue plans are in order for quick implementation ...

~

[shrooma]

Ammonia leak?

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I call Spacebats.....

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[paperdyer]

As the article states the leak was in a cooling system, I hope it's not the cooling system for the space station itself.

[Merc14]

I believe that 2020 is the decommissioning date for ISS but it was originally scheduled for 2016 so I wonder if they will go back to that date if parts are starting to wear out.

[Sundew]

I believe that 2020 is the decommissioning date for ISS but it was originally scheduled for 2016 so I wonder if they will go back to that date if parts are starting to wear out.

I too was wondering how long this vehicle has been in orbit and how much longer will it be habitable. Gee, isn't it great for the U.S.A. to have to rely on the Russians for transport? And at a time when our relations are just going swimmingly too.....

[Merc14]

I too was wondering how long this vehicle has been in orbit and how much longer will it be habitable. Gee, isn't it great for the U.S.A. to have to rely on the Russians for transport? And at a time when our relations are just going swimmingly too.....

I know the Russians are planning on using some of the modules as the base for a new station to be called OPSEK that will aid future manned missions to Mars and the Moon. Europe was not to keen on funding the ISS past 2015 and yes, our inability to get to the station may all play into an earlier decommissioning date than 2020. Nothing official on this, BTW, just me voicing my thoughts

[Karasu]

I too was wondering how long this vehicle has been in orbit and how much longer will it be habitable. Gee, isn't it great for the U.S.A. to have to rely on the Russians for transport? And at a time when our relations are just going swimmingly too.....

Just wait. Cold War 2.0 is coming.

[Sundew]

Just wait. Cold War 2.0 is coming.

But, but, Hillary presented the reset button to Vlad! All is well, all is well!

[danielost]

I too was wondering how long this vehicle has been in orbit and how much longer will it be habitable. Gee, isn't it great for the U.S.A. to have to rely on the Russians for transport? And at a time when our relations are just going swimmingly too.....

+

wouldn't you have hated being the last two soviet citizens. sitting on the Muir space station wondering if anyone was going to come and get you. NASA did offer to send the shuttle to bring them home. but, the Russians said no and eventually got them home.

[Silver Surfer]

I too was wondering how long this vehicle has been in orbit and how much longer will it be habitable. Gee, isn't it great for the U.S.A. to have to rely on the Russians for transport? And at a time when our relations are just going swimmingly too.....

Whats the problem? Maybe it shows an example of how adults react and help each other rather then the petulant playschool politics the USA shows. We are all earthlings.

[Merc14]

Whats the problem? Maybe it shows an example of how adults react and help each other rather then the petulant playschool politics the USA shows. We are all earthlings.

Shaddup!

[bison]

It seems that the ammonia leak was a false alarm. The U.S. astronauts are now back in the section of the ISS that was evacuated.http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/0115/Astronauts-find-no-leak-in-US-module-of-space-station

Edited January 15, 2015 by bison

[Waspie_Dwarf]

I believe that 2020 is the decommissioning date for ISS but it was originally scheduled for 2016 so I wonder if they will go back to that date if parts are starting to wear out.

On the contrary, the US is pushing to extend the life of the ISS to 2024.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

I know the Russians are planning on using some of the modules as the base for a new station to be called OPSEK that will aid future manned missions to Mars and the Moon.

Most of the modules proposed for this space station are either spares or those not yet launched (I believe their are two more modules before the Russian segment is complete,but these have been heavily delayed by manufacturing problems).

Europe was not to keen on funding the ISS past 2015

Your information is very,VERY out of date.

ESA (and Russia, Canada and Japan) agreed in principle to fund the ISS to 2020 back in 2009 (see HERE), with formal agreement of ESA coming in 2011 (see HERE).

As of January 2014 the US suggest a further extension until at least 2024. NASA is currently in talks with the partner space agencies about this extension. The Russian government have made negative comments about this, saying they will end their participation in 2020 but the Russian science community is pushing for agreement to extend (see HERE).

Only this week Russia delayed making a final decision on ISS participation in 2020-2024 until May (see HERE).

and yes, our inability to get to the station may all play into an earlier decommissioning date than 2020. Nothing official on this, BTW, just me voicing my thoughts

You really haven't been keeping up have you?

NASA has a programme called the Commercial Crew Program (see HERE). This is developing not one but two spacecraft to get US astronauts to and from the ISS by 2017.

The Boeing CST-100 and the SpaceX Dragon will enable the US to once again launch astronauts from US soil. Indeed the existence of these spacecraft may very well be one of the driving forces behind the US desire to extend the life of the ISS. These are commercially developed, manufactured and operated vehicles and NASA will buy flights from Boeing and/or SpaceX, However if the ISS was to be decommissioned in 2020 it is possible that it will not be commercial attractive for these companies. By extending to 2024 then the commercial proposition is a lot healthier.

In December Vitaly Lopota, the former head of the Russian rocket and spacecraft manufacturer Energia, stated that the ISS could operate (excluding political decisions) until 2028 (see HERE).

The prospect of the US abandoning the ISS before 2020 (except in the event of a major accident) is so low as to be virtually non-existent. The likelihood that the ISS will continue to operate until at least 2020 is very high.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

wouldn't you have hated being the last two soviet citizens. sitting on the Muir space station wondering if anyone was going to come and get you.

This is complete nonsense.

No cosmonaut was ever left wondering if someone was going to get them, not on the MUIR (because there was no such thing) or even on the MIR (which did exist).

The reason for this is that on Soviet/Russian space stations, just as with the ISS, there were always enough Soyuz craft docked to return the entire crew home at any time.

As is so often the case with danielost's posts in this section there is a tiny kernel of truth which Daniel misunderstands. As he is adverse to checking his facts he then posts what he remembers, which is usually almost entirely wrong. This is just such a case.

The "last Soviet citizen" was the cosmonaut Sergei Krikalyev (just one cosmonaut, not the two in Daniel's version). Krikalyev was never stranded and never left wondering who was going to come and get him (this is a total fiction).

He become known as the "last Soviet citizen" because the Soviet Union still existed when he launched but had disintegrated when he landed. His mission was due to last 5 months, but actually lasted 10. This was not due to any kind of stranding but was a result of the political turmoil.

On May 18, 1991 Sergei Krikalev returned to Mir as part of the Mir EO-9 crew, along with Anatoli Artsebarski, and Britain's first astronaut, Helen Sharman. He remained on Mir more than 311 days returning to Earth on March 25, 1992. During that time the Soviet Union collapsed and a new Russia was born. For this Krikalev is sometimes called "the last Soviet citizen."

Source: New Mexico Museum of Space History

Soyuz TM-12 launched on May 19, 1991, with Krikalev as flight engineer, Commander Anatoly Artsebarsky, and British astronaut Helen Sharman. Sharman returned to Earth with the following crew after one week, while Krikalev and Artsebarsky remained on Mir. During the summer, they conducted six EVAs to perform a variety of experiments and some station maintenance tasks.

In July 1991, Krikalev agreed to stay on Mir as flight engineer for the next crew, scheduled to arrive in October because the next two planned flights had been reduced to one. The engineer slot on the Soyuz TM-13 flight on October 2, 1991, was filled by Toktar Aubakirov, an astronaut from the Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, who had not been trained for a long-duration mission. Both he and Franz Viehböck, the first Austrian astronaut, returned with Artsebarsky on 10 October 1991. Commander Alexander Volkov remained on board with Krikalev. After the crew replacement in October, Volkov and Krikalev continued Mir experiment operations and conducted another EVA before returning to Earth on March 25, 1992.

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Source: wikipedia

[danielost]

MOSCOW -- Cosmonaut 3rd Class Sergei Krikalev, stuck in a space station as an orbiting hostage to budget problems on the ground in Russia, returned on Wednesday to a bewilderingly different country than he left 10 months ago.

The cosmonaut, who was blasted into space 313 days ago by the former Soviet Union, landed in Kazakhstan, one of the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States that was formed in December.

The 34-year-old flight engineer appeared dizzy and had to be helped from his spacecraft by soldiers.

While he was circling the Earth in the Mir space station, the Soviet Union fought off a coup, changed leaders and went out of existence.

Nicknamed the ``space victim`` and ``the man who is sick of flying`` by the media while he waited to be returned to Earth, Krikalev has been compared to science fiction characters who suddenly find themselves catapulted into a new century.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1992-03-26/news/9201300570_1_russian-cosmonauts-vladimir-titov-space-station

your correct it was only one.