On 19/1/2024, a film entitled ISS was released in the USA, describing an international incident that takes place on the space station following a war between blocs. In reality, the astronauts and cosmonauts work together despite the conflict between Russia and the West, but the end of the station is already in sight
On 19/1/2024, a film entitled ISS was released in the USA, describing an international incident that takes place on the space station following a war between blocs.
The plot of the film is quite trivial. NASA astronaut and former lander Kira Foster arrives at the International Space Station (ISS) and meets the crew: American astronauts Christian Campbell and Commander Gordon Barrett, and Russian cosmonauts Veronika Vetrov and brothers Nikolai and Alexei Polov. Despite language and cultural differences, the team gets along well, until Kira notices nuclear explosions on Earth and communication with Earth is interrupted.
Gordon receives a secret message from the US government ordering him to take over the station, and the Americans suspect that the Russians have received a similar order from their government. While repairing an external antenna, Alexei cuts off Gordon's communications and Nikolai tries to kill him. Veronica approaches Kira and asks her to take Alexei's research, which contains a cure for radiation sickness, and escape to Earth in a Soyuz spacecraft.
Kira begins investigating the Russian lockers and Gordon survives the incident and is returned to the station. Nikolai fights with Gordon and both are killed. Kira discovers that the Russian file is indeed real and plans to run away with Christian, but he tries to attack her and is killed. Kira and Alexei restore the life support system and receive messages from the governments asking for permission to take over the station. Instead of responding, they escape to Earth on a Soyuz spacecraft with the Russian research, leaving the station and the conflict behind.
And meanwhile in the real world
The film received mediocre reviews, but in the meantime there are developments regarding the real International Space Station.
The reality is a little different from the one in the movie, even though the events happened in reality. With the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the head of the Russian space program at the time, Dmitri Rogozin, stated that Russia stopped cooperating with the International Space Station. The threat did not materialize, and instead Rogozin was removed from his position and now despite the conflict on Earth between Russia and the West, the space program manages to keep the peace between the crews that inhabit it. But life on the International Space Station in the real world is also quite complex.
A year ago, at the beginning of 2023, NASA announced plans to officially decommission the International Space Station in 2031. After dozens of launches since 1998 have put the station into orbit, bringing it down will be an operation in itself - and the risk is great if things go wrong.
NASA's plans for the decommissioning operation will end with a fiery dive into the middle of the Pacific Ocean - a place called Point Nemo, also known as the "spacecraft graveyard", the farthest point from any civilization.
Finding Point Nemo will be the last stop in a complex and multi-stage mission to transfer the activities of the International Space Station to new commercial space stations, and return the remaining structure safely to Israel.
The lifespan of the station which was originally designed for a service life of 15 years exceeds all expectations. It has been operating for 21 years and NASA has approved another decade, thus doubling its planned stay in orbit.
The station enabled a huge leap in science and worldwide cooperation that includes five different space agencies (USA, Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan). The modules and parts of the station were gradually built by many countries, and came into contact for the first time only in space.
The monumental composite structure is now the length of a football field and is the largest man-made object in space. It can be seen from Earth with the unaided eye as it completes its 16 daily revolutions at a distance of 400 km from Earth's surface.
The research in the weightless environment on the station has yielded breakthroughs in drug discovery, vaccine development and medical treatments in the last decade. The station also helps monitor ecosystems and natural disasters on Earth in real time. It is used to test future spacecraft technologies and study the effects of long spaceflight on health for the possibility of future manned exploration of the solar system.
Although research on the station is gaining momentum, NASA has noticed signs of a slowdown in infrastructure and components. In all the coffee around the country, the station is burned by radiation from the sun on one side, and freezes on the other. These extreme temperatures cause cyclical expansion and contraction that wears away the material. Space radiation scorches the transparent glass in the solar cells that supply electricity to the station, and repeated connections and disconnections cause gradual structural deterioration, which will eventually lead to the end.
The growth of space junk also poses an unplanned and catastrophic destruction risk. In 2016, a splash of paint caused a crack in a window, and just last year the station's staff went on evacuation alert when Russia destroyed a malfunctioning satellite with a missile, sending thousands of pieces of debris moving near the station at a speed of 5 kilometers per second. Despite this, NASA estimated that there is "high confidence" that the station will last until the end of 2030.
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The State of Israel is planning to build a space station, where all the Zoeys and the government and the Knesset will live. The head of the station will be Itamar ben Kochav Shavit, his deputy will be Lieutenant Sahar Smotritz, the one in charge of the diet will be the cook's screamer, Gotlibnana, in charge of grease and oils, the slippery-tongued Madame Le Chef Rakev, the one in charge of the clocks and instruments will be Dr. Amsel Lem and more.