A former astronaut on the head of Russia’s space agency’s threats to pull Russia out of the International Space Station.
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Cady Coleman, who was a NASA astronaut for 24 years and is now global explorer in residence at Arizona State University, spent almost six months on the ISS after she launched in 2010. In space, she worked closely with her Russian counterparts. In an interview Friday, she told me she’s the most concerned she has ever been about U.S.-Russia space cooperation. But she’s hopeful.She says she likes to picture the ISS partnership as “like a ship on the ocean. There are always waves, and the ship weathers the waves. … [S]ometimes the waves are bigger, and sometimes there are storms, but the ship in general, sailed by the people, just forges on.
, the United States handles the electric power of the station, while Russia is responsible for some propulsive elements, like course correcting and maintaining a stable orbit.For a time after the space shuttle program ended in 2011, NASA astronauts got to the ISS exclusively by way of Russian rockets.