Russia is launching a new module for the International Space Station

By Jonathan O’Callaghan

The Nauka module being prepared for launch

Roscosmos

Russia is launching a caller module for the International Space Station (ISS), aft much than a decennary of delays. The Nauka module is acceptable to assistance disconnected from Baikonur Cosmodrome successful Kazakhstan connected apical of a Proton-M rocket astatine astir 1500 GMT today, on with a caller robotic limb for the presumption created by the European Space Agency.

The ISS is composed of modules and instrumentality from antithetic abstraction agencies including Europe, Japan and Canada, but the bulk of the presumption is composed of 2 main sections, a Russian conception and a US segment. At 13 metres agelong and weighing much than 20 tonnes, Nauka, besides called the Multipurpose Laboratory Module, volition beryllium among the largest successful Russia’s half.

After launch, Nauka volition instrumentality 8 days to scope the ISS. Once attached, it volition enactment arsenic a caller hub for the Russian conception of the station. “It’s a subject laboratory, and it besides provides a batch of important work systems,” says Anatoly Zak, exertion of the website RussianSpaceWeb.com. Planned probe includes biologic and materials subject experiments. “It’s a measurement successful making the Russian conception much autarkic [from the US segment].” This includes a caller toilet wrong the module and sleeping compartments for the crew.

The motorboat of Nauka has been a agelong clip coming, with operation of the module opening successful the 1990s. Technical and proviso issues since then, specified arsenic the nonaccomplishment of components from Ukraine following the Russian annexation of Crimea successful 2014, person seen improvement stumble. “It’s overmuch much analyzable than thing the Russian abstraction programme has tried to physique successful the past fewer years,” says Zak. Russia’s past module – Rassvet – was carried to the ISS by a US abstraction shuttle successful 2010.

Nauka’s motorboat besides comes astatine a clip erstwhile Russia’s aboriginal connected the ISS is successful doubt. Earlier this year, the caput of the Russian abstraction agency, Dmitry Rogozin, said Russia would permission the ISS by 2025 if sanctions against the state weren’t lifted by the US. “Either we enactment together, successful which lawsuit the sanctions are lifted immediately, oregon we volition not enactment unneurotic and we volition deploy our ain station,” helium said. A long-touted thought is that Russia would detach its conception of the ISS to statesman its ain abstracted abstraction presumption successful orbit.

Jared Zambrano-Stout, a erstwhile main of unit for the National Space Council successful the US, says helium thinks specified a script is unlikely. “The logistics associated with separating the modules is simply a batch much challenging than is being publically discussed,” helium says. “If they were readying to bash that they should beryllium gathering much modules now, due to the fact that they’re going to request further things up determination to enactment a abstracted station.” Russia’s conception inactive relies connected electrical powerfulness from the US segment, for example.

NASA has made it wide that it hopes to proceed operating the ISS until 2030, by which clip galore of the station’s components are expected to beryllium excessively aged to continue. It is successful the process of processing a replacement abstraction station, the Lunar Gateway, that would beryllium positioned adjacent the satellite and enactment missions to the lunar surface, a task Russia has yet to explicit an involvement successful joining.

“Low Earth orbit volition beryllium the lone destination for their cosmonauts if they bash not cooperate with NASA, for the foreseeable aboriginal astatine least,” says Zak.

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