Space Policy Online
NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel is reopening a recommendation urging NASA to develop a controlled reentry plan for the International Space Station. The panel said today that technical and operational issues arose after a conceptual plan was adopted in 2020 and they now are reiterating concerns about the lack of an executable deorbit plan that could be needed at any time. ASAP also cautioned that operational flights of Boeing’s Starliner commercial crew system could be further delayed. On the good news front, they are pleased with the progress NASA is making on the architecture and integrated planning for Artemis.
Reporting on the results of ASAP’s third quarter 2022 review of NASA’s programs, panel member Sandy Magnus explained that in 2020 ASAP closed a 2012 recommendation it had made that NASA develop a timeline for the development of a controlled reentry capability to safely deorbit ISS in the event of unforeseen anomalies.
In 2020, NASA presented a conceptual deorbit plan on which agreement was imminently expected that satisfied the panel’s concerns and it closed the recommendation.
Since then, however, “subsequent detailed discussions among the ISS partners have identified technical and operational issues which need further addressing,” Magnus said. Discussions are ongoing between NASA and its Russian counterpart, Roscosmos, to make the plan “more robust,” but ASAP is raising a warning flag about the urgent need to have an executable plan because it could be required at any time, not just for the planned retirement of the ISS years from now.
“The ISS partners are operating at risk today without the capability to deal with a contingency situation that would lead to a deorbit. The risk to public safety and space sustainability is increasing every year as the orbital altitude in and around the ISS continues to become more densely populated by satellites, increasing the likelihood that an unplanned emergency ISS deorbit would also impact other resident space objects.” — Sandy MagnusConsequently, the panel issued a new recommendation today:
“NASA should define an executable and appropriately budgeted deorbit plan that includes implementation on a timeline to deliver a controlled reentry capability to the ISS as soon as practicable to be put in place for the need of a controlled deorbit in the event of an emergency as well as in place before the retirement of the ISS to ensure that the station is able to be deorbited safely.” — ASAPMore:
https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/nasa-safety-panel-warns-iss-operating-at-risk-for-lack-of-deorbit-plan/
