Russia threatens to shoot down the International Space Station (ISS)
Recently Russia has threatened to shoot down the International Space Station (ISS).
The United States has imposed a variety of sanctions on Russia because of Russia’s attack on Ukraine. In this regard, fear has been created by the Russian space agency’s threat to drop the International Space Station (ISS) on the United States, Europe, India or China.
The orbital flight path of the (ISS) does not pass over most of Russia. The ISS is divided into two broad parts. Part of this pertains to energy and systems, which is managed by the United States. The second part of this relates to maintaining the ISS in orbit, which is managed by Russia.
Russia periodically sends thrusters into space. These propellants attach to the ISS and provide the speed needed to keep it in orbit.
If the propellant is not sent to provide the required speed to the ISS, the ISS will fall to Earth.
About International Space Station (ISS):
- It is the only working space laboratory. This laboratory has been revolving around the Earth in a trajectory since 1998, about 400 km above the Earth’s surface. Europe, the United States, Russia, Canada and Japan operate the ISS as a ‘co-operative programme’.
- It completes one revolution of the Earth in about one and a half hours.
- It is used for a variety of zero-gravity experiments, space exploration studies, and technology development.
Source – The Hindu
