NASA: ISS is falling

Astronaut Sunita Williams (left) and Michael Lopez-Algeria during a space trip on ISS on January 31, 2007 (photo: TTO)

Data from the US Aerospace Agency (NASA) recently revealed that the International Space Station (ISS) is falling to 332 km, the lowest average height of ISS in the past 9 years.

Yesterday (March 16), with the help of the progress cargo ship M-58 ISS, the ISS trajectory was raised slightly. But according to NASA, since ISS orbit is falling gradually 90 meters per day, this lift will not work for weeks.

A NASA-published graph showed that the Columbia shuttle explosion in 2003 was marked when the ISS fell faster. Until that time, the altitude of the ISS was still quite high, thanks to being lifted to catch the shuttle. Since the Columbia ship disaster, all ISS lift trips have been carried out by Russian ships.

Currently, US and Russian expert groups are calculating the future routes of the ISS as well as all the objects that fly in or out of ISS, including orbital debris. They will then plan to upgrade ISS by other means, or, in the event of a space debris, they will adjust to the ISS to avoid them.

(Photo: Nasa)

T.VY