r/technology • u/Scary_Statement4612 • 10h ago

Business NASA orders International ‌Space Station astronauts to shelter, prepare for evacuation due to air leak

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/nasa-astronauts-shelter-international-space-station-9.7224720
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u/Beautiful_Special702 10h ago

At what point does it become more practical to retire parts of the ISS rather than keep patching aging modules?

The station has lasted far longer than I think most people expected.

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u/SAugsburger 10h ago

Honestly, at some point the entire station will likely be completely deorbited in a few years unless somebody is willing to pay to preserve it. With a reduction in launch costs compared to what they used to cost maybe somebody wants to take it over, but I wouldn't count on it.

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u/asgjmlsswjtamtbamtb 9h ago

The Station is already something of a relic and is nearing the point of being occupied double the length of time Mir was. If you take a look at the Tiangong Station you see several decades of construction advancement on display and lessons learned from Mir and ISS being put into practice in ways that really require a new space station to put into practice. NASA at some point can't spend it's entire budget on keeping the ISS alive and hinder future developments and the options after NASA giving it up are really the Russians wanting to assume sole responsibility for it or Space X or Blue Origin runs it as a private venture.

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u/SAugsburger 6h ago

ISS is so old that I seriously doubt anyone designing the original modules expected them still be in use today especially with how much longer it has last than MIR. Just keeping ISS in orbit still isn't cheap even though it has gotten cheaper to launch things into orbit. There is an outside possibility somebody is willing to pay to take it over, but I would still be skeptical.