Fox News
Expand
Browse All Video
Watch Live

You're watching...

Will International Space Station Be Abandoned?

Details

  • Description

    NASA has to consider de-manning the ISS if problems with Russia's fleet persist

  • Duration 4:38
  • Date

Clips

Also in this playlist...

Editor's Picks

Auto-advance: ON

Auto-advance
View All

Transcript

This transcript is automatically generated

Give -- a report on that as well.

I Tom great to see you.

Jenny pleasure to be with you it's my favorite astronaut who promised to take -- space when the time it is break time.

Our aren't astronauts going to be okay on the International Space Station.

Right the immediate picture is that they're safe they have the two Soyuz capsules aboard the space station three astronauts come home and each one.

And so the only problem for those folks is determining when they're going to come home.

NASA and the Russians and the other partners would like to launch.

-- Soyuz spacecraft to replace.

The first crew of three it's coming on the September.

But of course the Russian Soyuz fleet is grounded by the failure last week of -- progress cargo freighter.

They both use the same booster so.

The crews onboard aren't in any danger what's in danger is our investment in the space station.

Should we have to pull the astronauts off the station completely the first shuttle program was still going would we be having this conversation.

We would not because the space station's ten year history eleven year history has been always having two ways to get to the space station the American shuttle or Russian.

-- -- -- and five or six years ago the plan was to quickly succeed the shuttle.

With an American transport.

That would be replacing it soon after the shuttles retired.

Well the past two congresses and presidents have not funded that development so we decided to take the risk.

Having no crew aboard the space station and leaving us with one link the Russian link.

And now that risk is coming home to roost.

Time you're an insider -- What what -- the folks at NASA -- Al Gore formally from NASA tell you do they have resentment about the fact that so many jobs were lost when funding was cut.

Yes I think there -- two aspects of that that I'm hearing from my friends at NASA one is that.

There there's this immense talent pool the people who built the space station and operating the shuttle for thirty years.

That are really being let go and that's from the top managers all the way down to the people who put tiles on the bottom of the shuttle's heat shield.

And that talent pool that experience is being dissipated.

So if we want to do something to -- create our ability to reach the space station rapidly we won't have those people in place to help us.

The second aspect I think is.

Our Russian partners who have been very liable in the past for example when the Columbia shuttle was lost.

They picked up the slack and took over transport of people and cargo to the station.

We wonder how much they're going to share about their accident investigation will they give NASA the insight into what caused this failure.

To guarantee and assure us that the safety.

And our astronauts is not compromised.

By the fix that they implement.

So we're gonna find out in the next couple of months how much they're willing to share and whether or not NASA has them the right technical insight to be comfortable with this prepare.

-- get -- displays can start flying again.

Gave me I'm so sorry to the Russians need us as much as we need them.

There's an aspect -- that's they cannot afford to go it alone they don't have a big space budget.

And actually they don't have the expertise the technical.

Control center capability to run the space station on their own most of the hardware of course is American at the station so they wouldn't have the equipment over -- Moscow time.

Control the space station remotely for any period of time so they -- keep their space station.

Program robust.

And we need them because they're of course the only transport -- I think.

The fastest way out of this this for NASA to focus on having a back up to our commercial companies and to the Russians.

That's owned -- -- we American taxpayers it's gonna cost a bit more money.

But I think that's the right safety approach to keep two legs of transport to the station could Richard Branson Communist save the day.

-- a great entrepreneur or and I have a lot of confidence that he'll be taking tourists up within the next year.

However his ship can only go and suborbital cannonball type shots so he's not the solution.

Other companies like SpaceX and Orbital Sciences and Boeing.

Have proposed commercial transports but there right now for five years away and they're not proceeding very rapidly -- near term fixes and so I think it's gonna take some action by the congress and the White House.

To actually bump -- NASA's budget if they care.

About fixing this problem you think they do.

I think the White House in fact has said no we're not too worried about it but now we're seeing the consequences of having only one way to get to the station so.

You have to ask them.

Whether or not they really care about the space station as investment as a research outpost and whether they care about a leadership position in space technology that we've had for the last.

Fifty years.

Load More