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00:00earth over 8 billion people live here but not all of them are home since the turn of the century a
00:19few have been living here in the most hazardous scientific outpost ever built the International
00:29Space Station all together over 280 people have ridden a controlled explosion 250 miles into space
00:42risking their lives to maintain a continuous human presence off planet one day we may be
00:50getting ready for spacewalk and the next day we were doing some world-class science it's a unique
00:58environment provides a research laboratory like no other but conducting science in space brings
01:07its own challenges very quickly you can have an out-of-control situation from a very innocuous
01:13start as astronauts push the boundaries of science and exploration they face daily threats copy Luca you
01:27are constantly at risk of dying for a multitude of reasons you've got orbital debris that can hit your
01:35module and put a hole in it in the military we say that problems happen at the fold of a map and at
01:43night and that's exactly how this was shaping up how do we respond to that unknown understanding
01:52situations may have the ultimate consequences this is an actual this is the story of innovation and
02:00scientific exploration aboard the ISS operations space station science and survival right now on Nova
02:22you
02:44June 2024, the world is gripped by a drama playing out far above Earth.
02:57NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams had been scheduled to spend just eight days
03:03aboard the International Space Station while testing a new commercial spacecraft, the Boeing
03:09Starliner. Instead, when the vehicle encounters technical issues, their mission stretches into
03:19months. Despite the difficulties, the pair pivots to become routine crew members, drawing
03:27from their years of training and a deep love of the job to embrace their extended mission.
03:34Because this job is like no other.
03:37We're still pioneers in space, so there's still a lot that we have to learn.
03:44Space is incredibly risky.
03:49The safest thing to do is to not go anywhere, but that's not going to really teach you much
03:54about your species or the planet you live on. You have to take risk to get reward.
03:59Butch and Suni's extended stay is just the latest in a long line of unexpected challenges faced
04:06in orbit.
04:13Since the space station's first module was launched in 1998, there have been countless moments
04:18of risk and uncertainty. Requiring calm and quick thinking to resolve.
04:25Just put it down.
04:27Yeah. And that stopped the leak.
04:29All to create a unique research laboratory. A platform for international science and discovery
04:40through cooperation. Uniting humanity in the pursuit of knowledge beyond our planet.
04:49From monitoring hurricanes on earth, to cultivating plants in space. From detecting x-rays released
05:02by neutron stars, to developing cancer therapeutics. We have taken technologies, people, systems
05:12from all over the world, and we've put it together into this amazing laboratory.
05:17The research that we've been able to do has directly benefited life on planet earth. And we're only
05:26just getting started.
05:36Every minute of an astronaut's day on the station is carefully planned. And life on board might
05:43even come to feel routine.
05:48But it's always just a matter of time before the universe finds a way to remind the crew of just
05:53how vulnerable they are.
05:59In 2013, plans are underway to further extend the International Space Station's scientific footprint.
06:08A new module called Nauka, Russian for science, is to be added to the station the following year.
06:17Created to conduct materials science and biotechnology research, Nauka includes a base for the European
06:24robotic arm. And will also feature a specially designed airlock to carry out experiments in
06:30the vacuum of space.
06:35But to unlock this groundbreaking science, astronauts must brave the most unforgiving extremes.
06:45In my personal operational experience in the military, in the SEAL teams, the bad guys were the
06:49enemy that's shooting at you. In a space mission, the bad guy is the environment.
06:55The environment is trying to kill you.
07:00Space is not really made for life.
07:04It's very cold and very hot at the same time.
07:10It doesn't have an atmosphere. It really doesn't want to keep you alive.
07:16A spacewalk, also known as an extravehicular activity, or EVA, is especially dangerous.
07:27Astronauts usually go through the airlock in pairs, so that once outside, they can assist
07:32each other if needed.
07:35But still, they are isolated and vulnerable to hazards like radiation, micrometeoroid impacts,
07:43and equipment malfunctions.
07:50On July 16, 2013, American astronaut Chris Cassidy and flight engineer Luca Parmitano don their
07:58space suits.
08:01Spacewalks are not something that you just willy-nilly do.
08:05Hey, it's Tuesday. You want to go out and knock out a spacewalk? No.
08:08It doesn't work like that.
08:10It takes about four hours to go through the oxygen pre-breathe process and all of the checks
08:15leading up to opening the hatch.
08:17All spacewalkers are tethered to the space station with a retractable metal cable that pays out
08:40to 85 feet, and just like if you walk a pair of dogs on dog leashes, those leashes get all tangled up.
08:47Safety tethers are no different.
08:50So oftentimes, we intentionally take separate routes so the safety tethers don't tangle up on themselves.
09:00Luca and Chris come together on top of the Tranquility module to carry out their task,
09:05connecting data and ethernet cables for when the new module arrives.
09:13Thirty-eight minutes into the EVA, a warning alarm is triggered in Luca Parmitano's spacesuit.
09:21The carbon dioxide levels are too high.
09:25We have your sensor battery.
09:29Copy, Luca.
09:30You measured 48.6.
09:32Copy that, Luca.
09:36Ordinarily, exhaled carbon dioxide would be controlled and removed by the portable life-support system in Luca's backpack.
09:46The alarm could signal a dangerous build-up of the gas inside his spacesuit,
09:51which could lead to severe headaches, impaired judgment, and even death.
09:56We have a checklist telling us to check different parts of the suit to understand whether it is an actual alarm,
10:06or whether the sensor itself is at fault.
10:11It said, did the reading go from normal to ludicrous instantly?
10:16If that happened, then it's probably the sensor's bad.
10:18And Luca, nice work on the cuff checklist, but no further action on your part.
10:27Doubtful of the carbon dioxide reading, and satisfied that Luca has no symptoms,
10:33Mission Control concludes that the sensor is faulty, and the EVA can continue as planned.
10:38But six minutes later, Luca calls Mission Control again.
10:47There's another issue.
10:49FYI, I feel a lot of water on the back of my head.
10:53Are you sweating? Are you working hard?
10:54Tom, I am sweating, but it feels like a lot of water.
11:03And Luca, we got coffee.
11:08There should never be any water inside your spacesuit, especially not in the helmet area.
11:15And so I communicated that to the ground, and I said, I don't think it's a big deal.
11:19I just wanted to keep going with the EVA.
11:21Yay.
11:22Hey, Luca, while you're working there, can you give us maybe some more words on the water?
11:27Maybe identify the source, you think, and then is it getting any worse, or is it the same?
11:32Good questions.
11:34It's still the same, and I cannot tell you the source.
11:39On Earth, water falls under the force of gravity.
11:44In space, it's much less predictable.
11:46It's surface tension that drives the behavior of water.
11:51That surface tension is a pretty strong force, and the water just wants to stick to whatever it's stuck to.
11:57In Luca's case, the unexplained ball of water is sticking to the back of his head and threatening to creep around toward his face.
12:06My biggest concern was the water getting inside my ears, because if it did, it's really hard to get it out.
12:16You cannot tap your head. There's nothing you can do.
12:19I finished what I was doing and got over close to him, and I remember I could see it looked like half of a grapefruit just kind of jiggling on his head.
12:30And then little bitty pieces of water droplets moving around inside.
12:36I see these as sweat.
12:39No, it's not sweat.
12:40No, it's not sweat.
12:41Hey Luca, can you clarify, is it increasing or not increasing?
12:46It's hard to tell, but it feels like a lot of water.
12:50Oh, I see, yeah.
12:52I see it now, wiggling.
12:55I don't understand where it's coming from. It can't be in the water.
12:59It has to be the bag.
13:00At the European Space Agency, astronaut instructor Irv Stevena watches a live feed of the mission.
13:09They thought it might be the small water bag that the astronauts carry.
13:14There is a small bag which is attached to the stomach with Velcro and contains around one to one and a half liters of water.
13:21This has a little straw to enable the astronaut to stay hydrated.
13:26Can you suck it dry?
13:27Okay, the bag keeps dry now.
13:31But the situation doesn't improve.
13:36The bag is empty now.
13:38And so there's something less than a liter in the back of his head, 800 milliliters maybe.
13:45All right, Chris.
13:47More water collects in Luca's helmet.
13:50Yeah, I'm thinking it might not be the water bag.
13:53The only other option, Chris, that I'm thinking is the LCVG.
13:56The LCVG, or liquid cooling and ventilation garment, circulates cold water in the spacesuit via a system of tubes to prevent astronauts from overheating.
14:09As Chris and Luca correctly suspect, Luca's LCVG has malfunctioned and is leaking water into his helmet.
14:19The very suit designed to protect him from the dangers of space may now be putting him in mortal danger.
14:27That's the moment I think we're solidified in everybody's mind, okay, we're done for today.
14:3767 minutes into the EVA, mission control terminates the spacewalk.
14:43Hi, Chris and Luca.
14:44Just for you guys, I think we're going to terminate EVA case for EV2.
14:48So Luca, we'll have you head back to the airlock.
14:50Chris, we'll get a plan for you to clean things up here and then join him in a minute.
14:57Luca needs to get back inside the space station and remove his helmet.
15:04He begins retracing his route back to the airlock, while Chris clears away their tools.
15:10I remember leaving Chris and as I made the corner and disappear from sight, I remember thinking that I really wish that Chris could come with me.
15:21Because that's how we train. We train to be together. That's why we go outside as a team so that we have each other's back.
15:28Before I saw Luca disappearing behind the Z1 truss.
15:34And I wanted to say out loud, Luca, stop. Hold on. I'm coming with you.
15:41It just felt like that's what we should do.
15:44But as tempting as it is to hurry, Chris follows orders and forces himself to move deliberately.
15:52In the military, we say that problems happen at the fold of a map at the junction of grid squares and at night.
15:59And that's exactly how this was shaping up.
16:03As soon as he started to move, the sun set.
16:08And everything turns gold, bright gold for one split second.
16:13Incredibly beautiful. And then it's lights out.
16:17Lights out.
16:27The ISS takes around 90 minutes to orbit the Earth.
16:32For half this time, the space station is in total darkness.
16:36Now, once Luca started to move, well, what happened to his motion? It gets transferred into the water, too. So that stationary jiggly ball of jello starts flushing around his head.
16:53I felt it coming closer and closer to my forehead.
16:59And I thought, okay, this might cover both of my ears at the same time.
17:03Maybe more than a simple hindrance. It may be an actual problem.
17:06When I just completed a maneuver where I put myself upside down.
17:13So all my terms or reference had completely switched 180 degrees.
17:19That's when the water really completely covered my nose.
17:25And I found myself isolated, unable to see anything, unable to breathe through my nose.
17:31I didn't really know how much time I had before the water reached my mouth.
17:38If too much water covers both Luca's nose and mouth, he'll be unable to breathe or drink his way out of trouble.
17:47And to make matters worse, water enters Luca's comms, causing it to malfunction.
17:56Hey, please. I hear you, Luca. Go ahead.
17:58I hear you.
18:02Luca, are you here?
18:05Yep.
18:07There are two mics here.
18:10And when Luca talked, all we could hear were gurgling sounds.
18:14This was terrifying to hear for us here in the control room.
18:18At this stage, we realized that something serious had happened.
18:22Very bad and very dangerous.
18:24My memories are of just trying to feel around, making sure that I would grab the correct handles in a pressurized glove, which gives you no feedback, no tactile feedback.
18:43And I called Chris, telling him, hey, Chris, I think I'm a bit lost, but nothing came out.
18:52And I didn't have any return in my earphones, so I knew that he couldn't hear me.
18:55And at the time, my thoughts were, okay, I don't think Chris is going to come and get me right away.
19:06How much time do I have?
19:08That was my thought in my head.
19:10How much time do I have before this helmet fills up with water?
19:15There was a risk that if the water increased dramatically, I would drown in space.
19:20For the next five minutes, Luca will be completely silent and alone.
19:37He had the amazing presence about himself when everything kind of went dark and silent to just stop.
19:44At that point, Luca remembers. He is tethered to the space station's airlock.
19:52His cable extends all the way along the route, creating a safety line.
19:57If the astronaut were to float off into space, this cable would slowly pull them back towards the airlock.
20:03That tether has a little three or five pound pull to it, and he waited to feel the direction of that pull.
20:16And then he just put his hand over and grabbed the next piece of metal that he could find and inched his way back that way.
20:23Unbelievable awareness by Luca.
20:25The gentle tug of the waist tether leads Luca back to the airlock.
20:35But he's not safe yet.
20:38Before he can take his helmet off, the airlock must be sealed and repressurized.
20:45With no time to waste, the ISS crew runs through their checklist.
20:50Five minutes later, Chris joins Luca, squeezing in feet first.
20:57The only thing that mattered at that point was the hatch being closed.
21:02Because if we couldn't close the hatch, we couldn't get good air pressure.
21:06If we couldn't get air pressure, we couldn't get Luca's helmet off, and we can't get Luca's helmet off.
21:10Pretty soon, he's not going to have air in his helmet to breathe.
21:12With Luca's comms malfunctioning, and water now obscuring his vision, Chris must ready the airlock before crewmate Karen Nyberg can repressurize it.
21:32As they speed through the normally 15 minute long airlock procedure, ground control attempts to check in with Luca.
21:39Hey Luca from Houston, how you doing? Give us the status.
21:46But there's still no response.
21:49Luca, did you hear that?
21:54The pair are positioned head to foot, making it difficult for Chris to see into Luca's helmet.
21:59Shane, I don't think he can, his voice is going out or he can't hear you, but I'm trying to see him.
22:11Right about then, I grabbed his hand.
22:14Squeeze my hand if you're fine, Luca.
22:18Here, squeeze my hand.
22:20Everything okay?
22:21You okay?
22:23And we had never pre-briefed this, never talked about it, but I squeezed his hand.
22:30Roger that.
22:32Shane visually confirmed.
22:33She's doing okay.
22:35Sorry to my wife, but there had been never a more comforting squeeze back of a hand.
22:45That sensation of feeling his hand squeeze back in a nice controlled way was like, okay, we're going to be all right.
22:52He looks fine.
22:54He looks miserable, but okay.
22:58Copy all, Chris.
22:59We'll establish you from now on to check on him.
23:02Five...
23:04Fourteen PSI, Darren.
23:07Patch coming open.
23:16Airlock Houston, if you could have some towels ready, that would be great.
23:19We have him here.
23:23As my crewmates from the inside were opening the hatch, I looked up and I could see Karen, Karen Nyberg's face, and Fjodor.
23:33The whole crew had come into the airlock to help me, and their faces, they were so worried.
23:42Hatch is open, Shane.
23:44Luca's going to the crew lock.
23:46Copy, Chris, thanks.
23:49The sense of friendship, camaraderie, it's a form of love that we should explore more, I think.
23:58I could feel it, I could sense it, I could see it on their faces, and I was moved.
24:02Hey, Chris, just hang tight for a bit. Once we get Luca taken care of, we'll work on you.
24:05No problem, I'm in no rush. I've got a springside seat.
24:09I was obviously relieved. I knew that the ordeal was just about to end when they took the helmet off.
24:18I was all smiles, and I started cracking jokes. They were certainly happy to see me, I was certainly happy to see them.
24:30A thorough investigation reveals that a clogged filter led to the leak in Luca's suit.
24:40To ensure that astronauts can keep breathing if such a thing happens again,
24:46NASA has an absorbent pad and even a makeshift snorkel installed into each helmet.
24:53The way water behaves in space is just one aspect of microgravity,
25:10which is one millionth the gravitational pull experienced on Earth.
25:16And it's what helps keep the space station in orbit.
25:19It's a challenge to live and work in microgravity.
25:28But it also allows for groundbreaking studies to be carried out on the ISS.
25:42Biomedical experiments in space reveal that in microgravity,
25:46protein crystals form more uniformly, with fewer defects.
25:51They tend to be higher quality, they tend to be purer and larger.
25:56And so this has really been a great application for the pharmaceutical industry.
26:00A team of Japanese researchers has taken advantage of the ISS's Kibo Laboratory
26:06to investigate proteins associated with Duchenne's muscular dystrophy.
26:14A severe genetic disorder causing progressive muscle weakness.
26:19That series of experiments were really successful in finding some of the crystals associated with those proteins
26:26that they weren't able to do on the ground and develop drugs to target those.
26:29Other experiments focus on the astronauts themselves and the impact the microgravity environment has on their bodies.
26:40A vital area of research if humanity is to venture farther out into space.
26:45And we give periodic samples of blood and urine and saliva and in some cases, number two, to test all of the different outcomes on the body.
26:56We are both the conductors and the test subjects.
27:02We don't like the term guinea pigs because we're not, but we are subjects of the same kind of experiments.
27:09In the end, we are interested in what can we glean from performing science on the human body in space that we cannot on the ground.
27:19Every part of the space station is crucial to conduct this science and maintain the lives of its inhabitants.
27:30All the things we might take for granted here on Earth, air, water, food, have to be designed, calculated and engineered to work properly in microgravity.
27:43Even using the toilet.
27:45You've got to be able to use all of your facilities, whether it's the bathroom or the air conditioning or the water processor.
27:53All of those systems are there for a reason because you need them.
27:57Let's take a peek at the process.
27:59With so little gravity, space toilets use air flow to pull urine and feces away from the body and into the proper receptacles.
28:09And this valve is what activates the whole system.
28:13Going number one, you feel pretty confident with that. You're effectively just turning on a fan, opening a valve and peeing.
28:21In good NASA fashion, we have a checklist. This is called procedure 2.301.
28:26And in case things go wrong.
28:29Going number two is a little bit more, you really reread every little line.
28:35There's a plastic liner in there where your deposit goes.
28:41If you make the mess, you've got to clean up the mess. So you don't want to be that one.
28:44You take this red tab. You pull it off the rim. And we do have a stick. And you push it down in there. And then it's time to put a new bag on. Ready to go.
28:57But the toilets are vital to the International Space Station in more ways than one.
29:07Water is life. Water is life on Earth. Water is life on the International Space Station.
29:12Every drop of water, whether it's your urination, whether it's your sweaty t-shirt from exercise, the moisture in our breath as we exhale, all of that moisture gets captured by the environmental control system and put back into the water processor.
29:29This fundamental part of the space station's environmental control and life support system allows the ISS to recycle 98% of the water that a crew brings along at the start of a mission.
29:44Every now and then, as you're filling your coffee bag, you think, wait a minute. This was yesterday's coffee. And it's also today's coffee.
29:54But the system works really well. And you get alarms long before it is anything but pure water.
30:01While the systems on board are designed to keep the crew alive, it is the responsibility of the crew to maintain the space station itself.
30:11A fundamentally symbiotic relationship. Neither could survive for long periods in space without the other.
30:19The ISS is the largest human-made structure in orbit ever built, with a surface area of well over 100,000 square feet exposed to the hostile environment of space.
30:33One of the dangers in space that's outside the vehicle are what we call micrometeoroids.
30:40So those can come from a number of sources.
30:45Bits of cosmic dust traveling at a tremendously high speed can hit the shell of your module and put a hole in it.
30:56Impact tests conducted on the ground reveal the destructive force of high-velocity particles, some no larger than a grain of sand.
31:09Incoming particles can reach speeds of up to 162,000 miles per hour, up to 50 times faster than a speeding bullet.
31:21The ISS has survived several direct hits to its solar panels and to the Canadarm too.
31:34The smaller pieces cause problems because they're going very fast.
31:37So you multiply a very small number, which is a mass, times a very big number, which is a velocity, that's where you get the problem.
31:45The result is that even the tiniest particles can pack a huge punch.
31:52To defend the space station, more than 100 shields protect the critical components.
32:00A common kind is a stuffed whipple shield, a multi-layered system of metal and synthetic materials, which can break up smaller meteoroids, dispersing their energy.
32:12Russian modules tend to have thicker ribs and thinner skin.
32:22So from a probabilistic perspective, the Russian modules are much more susceptible to small micrometeoroid penetrations.
32:31On the flip side, the US modules have very, very thick skin, so smaller micrometeoroids are not likely to penetrate the US module.
32:43But micrometeoroids aren't the only threat.
32:49Increasingly, it's orbital debris that comes from something human made.
32:53So a screw, a paint fleck, a rocket body, I mean, it could be anything, right?
33:00There are so many more objects in space.
33:03There may be bits of derelict satellites that approach your orbit.
33:08With low Earth orbit becoming more crowded by the day, the probability of catastrophic collision increases.
33:15The good thing about low Earth orbit is we've seen this huge boom of private companies and commercialization, and it's everywhere.
33:23The bad thing is there's lots of old pieces of stuff out there, whether it's spent launch vehicles, whether it's dead satellites.
33:31Protecting the ISS now poses a unique challenge.
33:35Today, more than 15,000 pieces of space debris are tracked in low Earth orbit where the ISS resides.
33:46Including fragments of used rockets and decommissioned satellites that, with no way to regulate their temperature, repeatedly expand and contract until they break up or sometimes even explode.
34:00And these are just the objects we are able to track, those larger than four inches.
34:09Add in smaller fragments, and the total number of debris particles is estimated to be in the millions.
34:18Each fragment can go on to hit more objects, creating exponentially more fragments and more collisions.
34:26A potential nightmare for mission control.
34:35The bigger of pieces we track pretty well, and we do debris avoidance maneuvers sometimes, because we know that there's a potential collision.
34:45In 2021, Russia launched an anti-satellite missile, deliberately destroying one of its own defunct satellites.
34:52The impact created a massive cloud of high-velocity debris hurtling through low Earth orbit.
35:00Although the initial pass missed the station, the danger was far from over.
35:07Subsequent orbits of the wreckage required mission control to carry out avoidance maneuvers to keep the ISS out of harm's way.
35:16But rogue impactors aren't always the problem.
35:23Every maneuver, every docking, is painstakingly planned and monitored by the folks at Mission Control.
35:30And during these tightly coordinated movements of the space station, controllers must be ready for the unexpected.
35:42The range is 3 meters.
35:47Range is 0.1. We're standing by for contact.
35:55July 29th, 2021.
35:58After years of delays, the uncrewed multipurpose laboratory module, or MLM, Nauka, docks with the International Space Station.
36:09It marks the first major expansion to the Russian segment in over 10 years.
36:16Once docking to the Zvezda service module is complete, at Mission Control in Houston, Zebulon Scoville takes over flight director duties.
36:26I did a quick handover and plugged in, thinking that we were just going to be doing some minor reconfigurations and stabilizations of opening hatches, equalizing the atmospheres and so forth.
36:41It didn't quite go that way.
36:45About one and a half minutes after plugging in my headset, a small yellow stripe lit up across the caution warning board in the front of Mission Control.
36:53My attitude control officer notifies me that we have a loss of attitude control, or LOAC.
37:00For reasons unknown, the ISS has begun to spin out of control.
37:06We saw on the front screens the video cameras coming from ISS, almost a snowstorm of particles around the outside of the ISS, and it wasn't entirely clear what the source of this was.
37:20This could be a coolant fluid that had vented, it could be a fuel or propellant that was leaking overboard, or it could be thrusters firing.
37:30The fact of the matter is, we didn't know.
37:31And so this is where we had to very quickly try to understand, what is this venting overboard?
37:36What is it doing to ISS?
37:39How will we first make sure this crew is going to be safe, and second, get the vehicle under control?
37:45Station Houston on 2, we need you in 2.702.
37:49This is an actual.
37:53French astronaut Thomas Pesquet and his six crewmates are on board at the time.
37:58This is not training.
38:01That's the message we don't really want to hear during a six month mission.
38:11If a space station spins too fast, this can introduce several potential hazards.
38:18If it were to flip upside down, now our antennas, which are normally pointing towards our communication satellites, are no longer pointing up.
38:25So we risk losing communication with the space station.
38:30We have solar panels that are 35 meters across and 70 meters long, and very, very fragile.
38:36The acceleration of rotating them will generate centrifugal force, and that can tear everything apart.
38:44We have docking mechanisms with the crew vehicles that are used as lifeboats.
38:49If we spin too fast, if we had to undock in an emergency, those hooks might jam.
38:55It's really very, very dangerous.
38:58A space station is very fragile.
39:01It doesn't even have to carry its weight.
39:04The advantage of building a station in the vacuum of space is that you don't have to fight things like wind and gravity, so the structure can be less sturdy.
39:14The problem is, any unexpected twisting could break it into pieces.
39:24Ground control desperately needs to understand what is causing the ISS to turn.
39:29So one of my first questions was to my life support officer.
39:34Are you maintaining cabin atmosphere?
39:37Cabin atmosphere is stable flight.
39:39Okay, what about cooling systems?
39:42Thermal systems are stable flight. We're looking good.
39:45The team ticks off a checklist of possible causes.
39:49Until a plausible suspect emerges.
39:56One of the main and most likely candidates was that the Nauka module was firing thrusters.
40:04A software error on the Nauka means that it doesn't recognize it has successfully connected to the ISS.
40:10And so, it will try to establish its orientation, to move, to capture the sun, to recharge its solar panels.
40:20The problem is, it starts to take the whole station with it.
40:25Nauka's thrusters start firing.
40:28Trying to pull away from the space station, it is now securely docked to.
40:32Station Houston on two. We are out of attitude by at least 45 degrees and increasing.
40:43Four huge gyroscopes on board the ISS keep the station in position.
40:50As the Russian thrusters fight with the space station's gyros,
40:54there's concern that the joints of the aging ship can't take the strain.
40:58So, the decision is made to shut the gyros down.
41:04Reducing the stress on the attachment points that connect the station's modules together.
41:12The ISS is now in free drift.
41:17And there's an added complication.
41:20Unfortunately, the Nauka module can only communicate with the ground
41:23if the station was physically over the Russian ground sites.
41:25As it was, we were just heading off of the eastern coast of Russia over the Pacific.
41:31And so we had no insight, no telemetry, no data, and no ability to command it or turn it off.
41:38We weren't going to get that back for about 90 minutes.
41:42In Houston, flight controllers listened to real-time translations of the communications between Moscow's mission control and the cosmonauts on board the station.
41:52Oleg, please, can you confirm or not whether MLM thrusters are still firing?
42:04Do you see, do you hear anything?
42:07I can confirm that the thrusters are still firing. They have just fired and we could feel it.
42:13At the time, I don't know if we fully realized the seriousness of the situation.
42:23We've got one and a half hours to ride this thing out before we're going to be able to completely stabilize the system.
42:29At this point, in order to assure we had every advantage we could, I declared a spacecraft emergency.
42:39A spacecraft emergency ensures that all attention is focused on the operation at hand.
42:45All available ground antennas across the US now attempt to make contact with the ISS.
42:58Oleg, we did not copy your last. Could you repeat your last?
43:01But still, the connection between the ground and space is patchy and unpredictable.
43:11And with the whole ISS structure now turning away from its communications satellites,
43:18US operations are about to lose contact with the crew.
43:21We were tracking the space station spin and we could predict we had minutes to communicate several steps of procedure to the crew before we were going to run out of time.
43:35Step number one, make sure to secure everything that is outside the station that can move, that can rotate.
43:42The crew are instructed to lock the station's radiators, which are at risk of shearing off,
43:48while the solar panels are repositioned.
43:59Meanwhile, at mission control,
44:02the team formulates a plan to fight back against Nauka's thrusters.
44:11We knew as the Nauka module's thrusters were firing that we had to bring a bigger lever arm,
44:16a more powerful force to bear against these thrusters.
44:24For that extra muscle, ground control turns to the Zvezda service module,
44:29primary source for the ISS's propulsion systems.
44:32At this time, a cargo ship, Progress 78, is also docked to the station, on the opposite side to the misfiring Nauka.
44:49Crucially, both Progress 78 and the Zvezda have thrusters.
44:54Now typically, there will be days of analysis.
45:01In this specific case, this was unexpected, and so there was a little bit of engineering judgment that had to be applied,
45:07recognizing that the alternative and indecision would have been worse.
45:11Mission control makes the decision to fire up the Zvezda and Progress 78 thrusters,
45:15to set up an orbital wrestling match with the Nauka that they have to win.
45:28Hey Aki, just to update you guys.
45:30So right now, we're in a little bit of a tug of war between thrusters firing from both the SM and the MLM.
45:35And we're going through the best course of action right now.
45:40At this point, we have no further actions for you.
45:43For nearly 45 minutes, the ISS drifts out of control.
45:48The combined effort of the Zvezda and Progress 78 modules pushes back against Nauka.
45:56It's putting huge strain on the space station structure.
46:00This was like riding a bucking Bronco, and we've got to make it the full eight seconds.
46:04Except this time, it was in orbit around the entire Earth.
46:10It will be another 45 minutes before Russian controllers can regain command of Nauka's thrusters.
46:23But then, all of a sudden...
46:28Aki, we can report that the MLM thrusters are no longer firing.
46:32We are back into attitude control. Rates are stable.
46:36Okay, copy.
46:39Nauka's thrusters fall silent.
46:43Its fuel tanks have run dry.
46:46The tug of war is over.
46:48As we brought the space station back to normal attitude, I think we all took a deep sigh of relief.
46:59After rotating one and a half times, around 540 degrees, mission controllers can finally bring the station to a halt and begin a controlled return to its correct attitude.
47:11The team that I had working in the control center that day was an example of performance that, to this day, I will always remember.
47:25Not because we did everything perfect, but because of how we came together.
47:29Since its launch in 1998, the ISS has been humanity's laboratory in the sky.
47:47Over the past 25 years, we have served over 5,000 researchers on the International Space Station, conducted over 4,000 different experiments, and published right around 4,000 papers.
48:03The fact that we've learned so much, not just about technology, but about ourselves, as a result of the ISS, that's a legacy that's not to be denied or discounted in any way.
48:18For many, the value of the ISS goes far beyond the physical.
48:26It's about perspective, hope, and the shared pursuit of something greater.
48:34The space station is not just a place where we produce science, but it's a place of emotions.
48:40It is a place of humanity. A place where we brought with us our own dreams.
48:51It's absolutely phenomenal. There is a technical feat.
48:55But I think that the dream and the conception of the world, a bit of multilateralism and scientific cooperation between the countries behind it, which for me, are even more beautiful.
49:05A quarter century of peaceful cooperation, multiple countries, multiple organizations, all working with the focus of trying to make humanity better.
49:15To me, that seems like a pretty powerful and lasting legacy.
49:21But with aging technology and the advent of new, more efficient space platforms, the station's days are numbered.
49:31The ISS was never meant to be a permanent structure in space.
49:39The International Space Station is scheduled to begin its final chapter in 2030.
49:47About a year and a half before the space station de Orbis, we will launch a crew that will stay there for a year.
49:53They will be in charge of getting the last bits of science and engineering we can out of this facility.
49:58About six months prior to the deorbit process, that crew will come home, leaving the space station uncrewed as its altitude starts to lower.
50:09A deorbit vehicle will attach to the ISS and gently guide the station into a slow, deliberate descent, where it will enter the thick layers of Earth's atmosphere at speeds over 17,000 miles per hour.
50:29Experiencing temperatures close to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
50:42We know some of it will burn up, but large pieces of it will survive through the atmospheric re-entry.
50:47That's why we want to make sure that it's a controlled process so we safely hit the Pacific Ocean.
50:57The ISS's fiery disintegration will be the final act in its incredible journey.
51:02But the lessons we learn from its time in space, the technologies developed, and the unity it represents will echo in future space exploration for generations to come.
51:23The ISS is not just an international laboratory that's orbiting in space. It's much, much more than that.
51:33No matter where we come from, no matter the differences in political systems and the leaders that we have, we really can work together. We have that ability.
51:45It's just really fun to think about the future of space exploration and to know that I was, in a small way, part of the International Space Station's story.
52:06The International Space Station is the crowning achievement of human ingenuity so far.
52:15The International Space Station on the world's
52:20What circumstances do we have to carry Your ENRICE living into the heavy power?
52:28We must have stopped by the storm happening east, where we need to gather.
52:37The missile might fully find us a better form because you have to gather.
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