“We threatened we might put astronauts in fits, in Dragon, to ship a message to world that we disagreed,” one NASA official advised Ars. “They didn’t care.”
Reaching a decision
The standoff continued into Friday morning, when Russian astronauts appeared to again off their plans, solely to subsequently method the PrK module with a noticed and the intent to take away a load-bearing bracket. In the meantime, Roscosmos officers continued to disregard communication with NASA officers on the bottom.
At this level, NASA directed Crew 12—US astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, French astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev into SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft—together with US astronaut Chris Williams, who had flown to the station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
“We felt there was a really excessive chance of a foul consequence occurring in the event that they sawed that bracket off,” a NASA supply mentioned. NASA’s choice to ship its astronauts right into a protected haven prompted Roscosmos to lastly again off.
Within the days since, there was some further back-and-forth, however Russia has now advised NASA it can decommission the PrK module.
Successfully, this implies cosmonauts will not enter the PrK module or try and pressurize it. Progress autos will nonetheless have the ability to use the docking port to switch fluids or carry out different capabilities, however Russia might want to use different ports to maneuver provides on board the house station.
For NASA and the house station’s longevity, this settlement with Russia represents a major step ahead. For years, NASA has reluctantly accepted the danger of a fast depressurization occasion on board the house station because of the PrK module’s points. Now that danger ought to be retired.
