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terror on the space station s01e02
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00:02Earth. Over 8 billion people live here, but not all of them are home.
00:12Since the turn of the century, a few have been living here,
00:18in the most hazardous scientific outpost ever built, the International Space Station.
00:30Altogether, over 280 people have ridden a controlled explosion 250 miles into space,
00:38risking their lives to maintain a continuous human presence off-planet.
00:45One day we may be getting ready for a spacewalk, and the next day we were doing some world-class
00:50science.
00:52Its unique environment provides a research laboratory like no other.
01:00But conducting science in space brings its own challenges.
01:05Very quickly you can have an out-of-control situation from a very innocuous start.
01:12As astronauts push the boundaries of science and exploration, they face daily threats.
01:22You are constantly at risk of dying for a multitude of reasons.
01:27You've got orbital debris that can hit your module and put a hole in it.
01:34In the military we say that problems happen at the fold of a map and at night.
01:39And that's exactly how this was shaping up.
01:43How do we respond to that unknown?
01:47Understanding situations may have the ultimate consequences.
01:51Station Houston on 2, this is an actual.
01:55This is the story of innovation and scientific exploration aboard the ISS.
02:16June, 2024.
02:19The world is gripped by a drama playing out far above Earth.
02:25NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams had been scheduled to spend just eight days aboard the International Space Station,
02:34while testing a new commercial spacecraft, the Boeing Starliner.
02:39Into the spacecraft.
02:41Instead, when the vehicle encounters technical issues, their mission stretches into months.
02:49Despite the difficulties, the pair pivots to become routine crew members.
02:54Drawing from their years of training and a deep love of the job to embrace their extended mission.
03:02Because this job is like no other.
03:05We're still pioneers in space, so there's still a lot that we have to learn.
03:15Space is incredibly risky.
03:18The safest thing to do is to not go anywhere, but that's not going to really teach you much about
03:22your species or the planet you live on.
03:24You have to take risk to get reward.
03:28Butch and Suni's extended stay is just the latest in a long line of unexpected challenges faced in orbit.
03:35And liftoff, International Space Station is underway.
03:40Since the space station's first module was launched in 1998, there have been countless moments of risk and uncertainty.
03:49I got this throwing you all over the place.
03:52Requiring calm and quick thinking to resolve.
03:56Just put it down. Yeah. And that stopped the leak.
04:01All to create a unique research laboratory.
04:04A platform for international science and discovery through cooperation.
04:11Uniting humanity in the pursuit of knowledge beyond our planet.
04:21From monitoring hurricanes on Earth.
04:24To cultivating plants in space.
04:28From detecting x-rays released by neutron stars.
04:32To developing cancer therapeutics.
04:36We have taken technologies, people, systems from all over the world.
04:41And we've put it together into this amazing laboratory.
04:48The research that we've been able to do has directly benefited life on planet Earth.
04:53And we're only just getting started.
05:05Every minute of an astronaut's day on the station is carefully planned.
05:09And life on board might even come to feel routine.
05:16But it's always just a matter of time before the universe finds a way to remind the crew of just
05:22how vulnerable they are.
05:27In 2013, plans are underway to further extend the International Space Station's scientific footprint.
05:36A new module called Nauka, Russian for science, is to be added to the station the following year.
05:45Created to conduct materials science and biotechnology research,
05:49Nauka includes a base for the European robotic arm.
05:54And will also feature a specially designed airlock to carry out experiments in the vacuum of space.
06:03But to unlock this groundbreaking science, astronauts must brave the most unforgiving extremes.
06:13In my personal operational experience in the military, in the SEAL teams, the bad guys were the enemy that's shooting
06:18at you.
06:19In a space mission, the bad guy is the environment.
06:24The environment is trying to kill you.
06:28Space is not really made for life.
06:33It's very cold and very hot at the same time.
06:39It doesn't have an atmosphere.
06:41It really doesn't want to keep you alive.
06:44A spacewalk, also known as an extravehicular activity, or EVA, is especially dangerous.
06:55Astronauts usually go through the airlock in pairs, so that once outside, they can assist each other if needed.
07:03But still, they are isolated and vulnerable to hazards like radiation, micrometeoroid impacts, and equipment malfunctions.
07:18On July 16th, 2013, American astronaut Chris Cassidy and flight engineer Luca Parmitano don their spacesuits.
07:31Spacewalks are not something that you just willy-nilly do,
07:34hey, it's Tuesday, you want to go out and knock out a spacewalk?
07:36No, it doesn't work like that.
07:38It takes about four hours to go through the oxygen pre-breathe process and all of the checks leading up
07:44to opening the hatch.
07:51All right, I have a waist tether, gate closed, and locked.
08:00All spacewalkers are tethered to the space station with a retractable metal cable that pays out to 85 feet.
08:10And just like if you walk a pair of dogs on dog leashes, those leashes get all tangled up.
08:17Safety tethers are no different.
08:19So oftentimes, we intentionally take separate routes so the safety tethers don't tangle up on themselves.
08:28Luca and Chris come together on top of the Tranquility module to carry out their task,
08:34connecting data and Ethernet cables for when the new module arrives.
08:4138 minutes into the EVA, a warning alarm is triggered in Luca Parmitano's spacesuit.
08:50The carbon dioxide levels are too high.
08:53No two sensor battery.
08:57Copy, Luca.
08:58You measure 48.6.
09:01Copy that, Luca.
09:04Ordinarily, exhaled carbon dioxide would be controlled and removed by the portable life support system in Luca's backpack.
09:14The alarm could signal a dangerous buildup of the gas inside his spacesuit,
09:19which could lead to severe headaches, impaired judgment, and even death.
09:27We have a checklist telling us to check different parts of the suit to understand whether it is an actual
09:34alarm
09:34or whether the sensor itself is at fault.
09:39It said, did the reading go from normal to ludicrous instantly?
09:44If that happened, then it's probably the sensor's bad.
09:48And Luca, nice work on the cuff checklist, but no further action on your part.
09:56Doubtful of the carbon dioxide reading and satisfied that Luca has no symptoms,
10:01Mission Control concludes that the sensor is faulty and the EVA can continue as planned.
10:10But six minutes later, Luca calls Mission Control again.
10:15There's another issue.
10:17FYI, I feel a lot of water on the back of my head.
10:21Are you sweating? Are you working hard?
10:23Tom?
10:25I am sweating, but it feels like a lot of water.
10:31And Luca, we copy.
10:36There should never be any water inside your spacesuit, especially not in the helmet area.
10:43And so I communicated that to the ground, and I said, I don't think it's a big deal.
10:47I just wanted to keep going with the EVA.
10:50Hey, Luca, while you're working there, can you give us maybe some more words on the water?
10:56Maybe identify the source, you think, and then is it getting any worse or is it the same?
11:01Good questions.
11:02It's still the same, and I cannot tell you the source.
11:07On Earth, water falls under the force of gravity.
11:11In space, it's much less predictable.
11:16It's surface tension that drives the behavior of water.
11:20That surface tension is a pretty strong force, and the water just wants to stick to whatever it's stuck to.
11:26In Luca's case, the unexplained ball of water is sticking to the back of his head and threatening to creep
11:34around toward his face.
11:36My biggest concern was the water getting inside my ears.
11:41Because if it did, it's really hard to get it out.
11:44You cannot tap your head. There's nothing you can do.
11:48I finished what I was doing and got over close to him, and I remember I could see it looked
11:53like half of a grapefruit just kind of jiggling on his head.
11:59And then little bitty pieces of water droplets moving around inside.
12:04I see these as sweat.
12:07No, it's not sweat.
12:08No, it's not sweat.
12:10Hey, Luca, can you clarify, is it increasing or not increasing?
12:15It's hard to tell, but it feels like a lot of water.
12:18Oh, I see, yeah.
12:21I see it now, wiggling.
12:25I don't understand where it's coming from. It can't be the water.
12:28It has to be the bag.
12:29At the European Space Agency, astronaut instructor Irv Steverner watches a live feed of the mission.
12:37They thought it was the bag that the astronauts wear.
12:41There's a small bag that is attached with velcro on the torso at the throat,
12:46which contains a liter, a liter and a liter of water, with a small bread,
12:49which allows you to drink a little bit during the sortie of the aircraft.
12:54Can you suck it dry?
12:56Okay, the back is dry now.
12:59But the situation doesn't improve.
13:03The bag is empty now.
13:06And so there's something less than a liter in the back of his head, 800 milliliters maybe.
13:13All right, Chris.
13:15More water collects in Luca's helmet.
13:18I'm thinking that it might not be the water bag.
13:21The only other option, Chris, that I'm thinking is the LCVG.
13:26The LCVG, or liquid cooling and ventilation garment, circulates cold water in the spacesuit via a system of tubes to
13:36prevent astronauts from overheating.
13:38As Chris and Luca correctly suspect, Luca's LCVG has malfunctioned and is leaking water into his helmet.
13:49The very suit designed to protect him from the dangers of space may now be putting him in mortal danger.
13:57That's the moment I think where it solidified in everybody's mind, okay, we're done for today.
14:0667 minutes into the EVA, mission control terminates the spacewalk.
14:11All right, Chris and Luca, just for you guys, I think we're going to terminate EVA case for EV2.
14:17So Luca, we'll have you head back to the airlock.
14:19Chris, we'll get a plan for you to clean things up here and then join him in a minute.
14:26Luca needs to get back inside the space station and remove his helmet.
14:32He begins retracing his route back to the airlock, while Chris clears away their tools.
14:39I remember leaving Chris, and as I made the corner and disappeared from sight, I remember thinking that I really
14:47wish that Chris could come with me.
14:50Because that's how we train. We train to be together. That's why we go outside as a team so that
14:55we have each other's back.
14:58Before I saw Luca disappearing behind the Z1 truss.
15:04And I wanted to say out loud, Luca, stop. Hold on. I'm coming with you.
15:09It just felt like that's what we should do.
15:13But as tempting as it is to hurry, Chris follows orders and forces himself to move deliberately.
15:21In the military, we say that problems happen at the fold of a map at the junction of grid squares
15:27and at night.
15:28And that's exactly how this was shaping up.
15:32As soon as he started to move, the sun set.
15:36And everything turns gold, bright gold for one split second.
15:42Incredibly beautiful. And then it bites out.
15:53The ISS takes around 90 minutes to orbit the Earth.
15:59For half this time, the space station is in total darkness.
16:05Now, once Luca started to move, well, what happened to his motion?
16:11It gets transferred into the water, too.
16:14So that stationary jiggly ball of jello starts flushing around his head.
16:21I felt it coming closer and closer to my forehead.
16:25And I thought, okay, this might cover both of my ears at the same time.
16:29Maybe more than a simple hindrance. It may be a natural problem.
16:35When I just completed a maneuver where I put myself upside down.
16:40So all my terms or references had completely switched 180 degrees.
16:47That's when the water really completely covered my nose.
16:53And I found myself isolated, unable to see anything, unable to breathe through my nose.
16:59I didn't really know how much time I had before the water reached my mouth.
17:04If too much water covers both Luca's nose and mouth, he'll be unable to breathe, or drink his way out
17:12of trouble.
17:14And to make matters worse, water enters Luca's comms, causing it to malfunction.
17:22Hi, Chris. I hear Luca, go ahead.
17:29Luca, I hear you?
17:31Yes.
17:34There are two microphones here.
17:35And what happened was that when he was talking, we heard...
17:38We were almost terrifying.
17:42For us who saw this from the control center.
17:46So we realized that something happened very badly and was very dangerous.
17:57We were just trying to feel around, making sure that I would grab the correct handles.
18:05In a pressurized glove, which gives you no feedback, no tactile feedback.
18:14And I called Chris, telling him, hey, Chris, I think I'm a bit lost, but nothing came out.
18:18And I didn't have any return in my earphones, so I knew that he couldn't hear me.
18:26And at the time, my thoughts were, okay, I don't think Chris is going to come and get me right
18:31away.
18:32How much time do I have?
18:34That was my thought in my head.
18:36How much time do I have before this helmet fills up with water?
18:41There was a risk that if the water increased dramatically, I would drown in space.
18:49For the next five minutes, Luca will be completely silent and alone.
19:03He had the amazing presence about himself when everything kind of went dark and silent to just stop.
19:12At that point, Luca remembers. He is tethered to the space station's airlock.
19:18And this cable will be happening throughout the trajectory, in order to create a security line.
19:25If the astronaut was lost in space, this cable, which is under tension, will bring the astronaut, little by little,
19:31to the sas.
19:33That tether has a little three- or five-pound pull to it, and he waited to feel the direction
19:39of that pull.
19:42And then he just put his hand over and grabbed the next piece of metal that he could find and
19:47inched his way back that way.
19:49Unbelievable awareness by Luca.
19:56The gentle tug of the waist tether leads Luca back to the airlock.
20:02But he's not safe yet.
20:06Before he can take his helmet off, the airlock must be sealed and repressurized.
20:13With no time to waste, the ISS crew runs through their checklist.
20:19Five minutes later, Chris joins Luca, squeezing in feet first.
20:25The only thing that mattered at that point was the hatch being closed.
20:28Because if we couldn't close the hatch, we couldn't get good air pressure.
20:32If we couldn't get air pressure, we couldn't get Luca's helmet off, and we can't get Luca's helmet off.
20:36Pretty soon, he's not going to have air in his helmet to breathe.
20:43With Luca's comms malfunctioning, and water now obscuring his vision, Chris must ready the airlock before crewmate Karen Nyberg can
20:53repressurize it.
20:58As they speed through the normally 15-minute-long airlock procedure, ground control attempts to check in with Luca.
21:07Hey Luca from Houston, how you doing? Give us the status.
21:12But there's still no response.
21:16Luca, did you hear that?
21:20The pair are positioned head to foot, making it difficult for Chris to see into Luca's helmet.
21:28Shane, I don't think he can, uh, his voice is going out, or he can't hear you, but I'm trying
21:34to see him.
21:38Right about then, I grabbed his hand.
21:40Squeeze my hand if you're fine.
21:44Squeeze my hand.
21:46Everything okay?
21:47You okay?
21:49And we had never pre-briefed this, never talked about it, but I squeezed his hand.
21:57Roger that. Shane visually confirmed. She's doing okay.
22:04Sorry to my wife, but there had been never a more comforting squeeze back of a hand.
22:12That sensation of feeling his hand squeeze back in a nice, controlled way was like, okay, we're gonna be all
22:19right.
22:20He looks fine.
22:21He looks miserable, but, uh, okay.
22:24Copy all, Chris. We'll just status you from now on to check on him.
22:27Five, 14 PSI, Karen.
22:34Hatch coming open.
22:42Airlock Houston, uh, if you could have some towels ready, that would be great.
22:48We have them here.
22:50As my crewmates from the inside were opening the hatch, I looked up, and I could see Karen, Karen Nyberg's
22:58face, and Fjodor.
23:00The whole crew had come into the airlock to help me, and their faces, they were so worried.
23:09The hatch is open, Shane.
23:12Luca's going into the crewlock.
23:13Copy, Chris. Thanks.
23:15The sense of friendship, camaraderie, it's a form of love that, that we should explore more, I think.
23:24I could feel it, I could sense it, I could see it on their faces, and I was moved.
23:28Hey, Chris, just hang tight for a bit. Once we get Luca taken care of, we'll work on you.
23:35No problem, I'm in no rush. I gotta bring sight C.
23:39I was obviously relieved. I knew that the ordeal was just about to end when they took the helmet off.
23:49I was all smiles, and I started cracking jokes.
23:52They were certainly happy to see me, I was certainly happy to see them.
24:00A thorough investigation reveals that a clogged filter led to the leak in Luca's suit.
24:08To ensure that astronauts can keep breathing if such a thing happens again,
24:13NASA has an absorbent pad and even a makeshift snorkel installed into each helmet.
24:30The way water behaves in space is just one aspect of microgravity,
24:36which is one millionth the gravitational pull experienced on Earth.
24:42and it's what helps keep the space station in orbit.
24:51It's a challenge to live and work in microgravity,
24:55but it also allows for groundbreaking studies to be carried out on the ISS.
25:08Biomedical experiments in space reveal that in microgravity protein crystals form more uniformly,
25:16with fewer defects.
25:17They tend to be higher quality, they tend to be purer and larger,
25:22and so this has really been a great application for the pharmaceutical industry.
25:26A team of Japanese researchers has taken advantage of the ISS's Kibo Laboratory
25:33to investigate proteins associated with Duchenne's muscular dystrophy.
25:40A severe genetic disorder causing progressive muscle weakness.
25:45That series of experiments were really successful
25:48in finding some of the crystals associated with those proteins
25:53that they weren't able to do on the ground and develop drugs to target those.
25:57Other experiments focus on the astronauts themselves
26:01and the impact the microgravity environment has on their bodies.
26:07A vital area of research if humanity is to venture farther out into space.
26:13And we give periodic samples of blood and urine and saliva,
26:18and in some cases, number two, to test all of the different outcomes on the body.
26:24We are both the conductors and the test subjects.
26:28We don't like the term guinea pigs because we're not,
26:32but we are subjects of the same kind of experiments.
26:37In the end, we are interested in what can we glean from performing science
26:42on the human body in space that we cannot on the ground.
26:49Every part of the space station is crucial to conduct this science
26:53and maintain the lives of its inhabitants.
26:57All the things we might take for granted here on Earth,
27:00air, water, food, have to be designed, calculated and engineered
27:06to work properly in microgravity.
27:10Even using the toilet.
27:13You've got to be able to use all of your facilities,
27:15whether it's the bathroom or the air conditioning or the water processor.
27:19All of those systems are there for a reason, because you need them.
27:23Let's take a peek at the process.
27:26With so little gravity, space toilets use air flow
27:30to pull urine and feces away from the body and into the proper receptacles.
27:34And this valve is what activates the whole system.
27:40Going number one, you feel pretty confident with that.
27:43You're effectively just turning on a fan, opening a valve and peeing.
27:47In good NASA fashion, we have a checklist.
27:50This is called procedure 2.301.
27:53And in case things go wrong...
27:56Going number two is a little bit more...
27:59You really re-read every little line.
28:01There's a plastic liner in there where your deposit goes.
28:07If you make the mess, you've got to clean up the mess.
28:09So you don't want to be that one.
28:10You take this red tab.
28:12You pull it off the rim.
28:15And we do have a stick.
28:17And you push it down in there.
28:20And then it's time to put a new bag on.
28:22Ready to go.
28:26But the toilets are vital to the International Space Station in more ways than one.
28:33Water is life.
28:35Water is life on Earth.
28:36Water is life on the International Space Station.
28:39Every drop of water, whether it's your urination, whether it's your sweaty t-shirt from exercise,
28:45the moisture in our breath as we exhale,
28:48all of that moisture gets captured by the environmental control system
28:52and put back into the water processor.
28:56This fundamental part of the space station's environmental control and life support system
29:03allows the ISS to recycle 98% of the water that a crew brings along at the start of a
29:09mission.
29:10Every now and then as you're filling your coffee bag, you think,
29:15wait a minute, this was yesterday's coffee and it's also today's coffee.
29:20But the system works really well and you get alarms long before it is anything but pure water.
29:27While the systems on board are designed to keep the crew alive,
29:31it is the responsibility of the crew to maintain the space station itself.
29:36A fundamentally symbiotic relationship.
29:40Neither could survive for long periods in space without the other.
29:47The ISS is the largest human-made structure in orbit ever built,
29:53with a surface area of well over 100,000 square feet exposed to the hostile environment of space.
30:02One of the dangers in space that's outside the vehicle are what we call micrometeoroids.
30:09So those can come from a number of sources.
30:13Bits of cosmic dust traveling at a tremendously high speed can hit the shell of your module and put a
30:22hole in it.
30:27Impact tests conducted on the ground reveal the destructive force of high velocity particles, some no larger than a grain
30:35of sand.
30:39Incoming particles can reach speeds of up to 162,000 miles per hour, up to 50 times faster than a
30:47speeding bullet.
30:49The ISS has survived several direct hits to its solar panels and to the Canadarm too.
30:59The smaller pieces cause problems because they're going very fast.
31:03So you multiply a very small number, which is a mass, times a very big number, which is a velocity.
31:10That's where you get the problem.
31:14The result is that even the tiniest particles can pack a huge punch.
31:21To defend the space station, more than 100 shields protect the critical components.
31:27A common kind is a stuffed whipple shield.
31:31A multi-layered system of metal and synthetic materials, which can break up smaller meteoroids, dispersing their energy.
31:43Russian modules tend to have thicker ribs and thinner skin.
31:49So from a probabilistic perspective, the Russian modules are much more susceptible to small micrometeoroid penetrations.
31:58On the flip side, the U.S. modules have very, very thick skin.
32:03So smaller micrometeoroids are not likely to penetrate the U.S. module.
32:10But micrometeoroids aren't the only threat.
32:15Increasingly, it's orbital debris that comes from something human made.
32:19So a screw, a paint fleck, a rocket body. I mean, it could be anything, right?
32:26There are so many more objects in space.
32:29There may be bits of derelict satellites that approach your orbit.
32:34With low Earth orbit becoming more crowded by the day, the probability of catastrophic collision increases.
32:42The good thing about low Earth orbit is we've seen this huge boom of private companies and commercialization, and it's
32:48everywhere.
32:50The bad thing is there's lots of old pieces of stuff out there, whether it's spent launch vehicles, whether it's
32:56dead satellites.
32:58Protecting the ISS now poses a unique challenge.
33:03Today, more than 15,000 pieces of space debris are tracked in low Earth orbit where the ISS resides.
33:12Including fragments of used rockets and decommissioned satellites that, with no way to regulate their temperature,
33:21repeatedly expand and contract until they break up or sometimes even explode.
33:28And these are just the objects we are able to track.
33:32Those larger than four inches.
33:35Add in smaller fragments, and the total number of debris particles is estimated to be in the millions.
33:44Each fragment can go on to hit more objects, creating exponentially more fragments and more collisions.
33:54A potential nightmare for mission control.
34:01The bigger pieces we track pretty well, and we do debris avoidance maneuvers sometimes because we know that there's a
34:08potential collision.
34:11In 2021, Russia launched an anti-satellite missile, deliberately destroying one of its own defunct satellites.
34:19The impact created a massive cloud of high-velocity debris hurtling through low Earth orbit.
34:28Although the initial pass missed the station, the danger was far from over.
34:36Subsequent orbits of the wreckage required mission control to carry out avoidance maneuvers to keep the ISS out of harm's
34:43way.
34:46But rogue impactors aren't always the problem.
34:52Every maneuver, every docking, is painstakingly planned and monitored by the folks at mission control.
35:01And during these tightly coordinated movements of the space station, controllers must be ready for the unexpected.
35:10The range is 3 meters.
35:16Range is 0.1. We're standing by for contact.
35:21July 29th, 2021.
35:25After years of delays, the uncrewed multipurpose laboratory module, or MLM, Nauka, docks with the International Space Station.
35:37It marks the first major expansion to the Russian segment in over 10 years.
35:43Once docking to the Zvezda service module is complete, at mission control in Houston,
35:50Zebulon Scoville takes over flight director duties.
35:53I did a quick handover and plugged in, thinking that we're just going to be doing some minor reconfigurations
35:59and stabilizations of opening hatches, equalizing the atmospheres, and so forth.
36:07It didn't quite go that way.
36:11About one and a half minutes after plugging in my headset, a small yellow stripe lit up across the caution
36:18and warning board in the front of mission control.
36:21My attitude control officer notifies me that we have a loss of attitude control, or LOAC.
36:28For reasons unknown, the ISS has begun to spin out of control.
36:35We saw on the front screens the video cameras coming from ISS, almost a snowstorm of particles around the outside
36:42of the ISS.
36:43And it wasn't entirely clear what the source of this was.
36:49This could be a coolant fluid that had vented, it could be a fuel or propellant that was leaking overboard,
36:54or it could be thrusters firing.
36:56The fact of the matter is, we didn't know.
36:58And so this is where we had to very quickly try to understand, what is this venting overboard?
37:04What is it doing to ISS?
37:06How will we first make sure this crew is going to be safe, and second, get the vehicle under control?
37:12Space Station Houston on 2, we need you in 2.702. This is an actual.
37:19French astronaut Thomas Pesquet and his six crewmates are on board at the time.
37:25This is not an training.
37:29This is the message that we don't want to hear when we are in a mission of six months.
37:33I will always remember that.
37:37If a space station spins too fast, this could introduce several potential hazards.
37:44If it were to flip upside down, now our antennas which are normally pointing towards our communication satellites are no
37:50longer pointing up.
37:51So we risk losing communication with the space station.
37:57We have 35 mètres each side, 70 mètres each side, and they are very, very fragile, in fact.
38:03The acceleration, to make it turn, will generate a centrifuge force.
38:06And that, unfortunately, it can all break down.
38:11We have docking mechanisms with the crew vehicles that are used as lifeboats.
38:15If we spin too fast, if we had to undock in an emergency, those hooks might jam.
38:30The advantage of building a station in the vacuum of space is that you don't have to fight things like
38:36wind and gravity, so the structure can be less sturdy.
38:41The problem is, any unexpected twisting could break it into pieces.
38:50Ground control desperately needs to understand what is causing the ISS to turn.
38:57So one of my first questions was to my life support officer.
39:01Are you maintaining cabin atmosphere?
39:03Cabin atmosphere is stable flight.
39:06Okay, what about cooling systems?
39:09Thermal systems are stable flight, we're looking good.
39:12The team ticks off a checklist of possible causes.
39:19Until a plausible suspect emerges.
39:22One of the main and most likely candidates was in that the Nauka module was firing thrusters.
39:30A software error on the Nauka means that it doesn't recognize it has successfully connected to the ISS.
39:38And so he will try to establish his orientation, to do his mission, to move, to capture the sun, to
39:43recharge his solar panels, and he does his mission alone.
39:45But the problem is that with his engines, he starts to bring the whole station with him.
39:51Nauka's thrusters start firing.
39:54Trying to pull away from the space station, it is now securely docked to.
39:59Station Houston on two.
40:01We are out of attitude by at least 45 degrees and increasing.
40:09Four huge gyroscopes on board the ISS keep the station in position.
40:16As the Russian thrusters fight with the space station's gyros, there's concern that the joints of the aging ship can't
40:23take the strain.
40:26So the decision is made to shut the gyros down, reducing the stress on the attachment points that connect the
40:34station's modules together.
40:38The ISS is now in free drift.
40:43And there's an added complication.
40:46Unfortunately, the Nauka module can only communicate with the ground if the station was physically over the Russian ground sites.
40:51As it was, we were just heading off of the eastern coast of Russia over the Pacific.
40:58And so we had no insight, no telemetry, no data, and no ability to command it or turn it off.
41:04We weren't going to get that back for about 90 minutes.
41:08In Houston, flight controllers listen to real-time translations of the communications between Moscow's mission control and the cosmonauts on
41:18board the station.
41:20Oleg, please.
41:23Can you confirm or not whether MLM thrusters are still firing?
41:31Do you see, do you hear anything?
41:35I can confirm that the thrusters are still firing. They have just fired and we could feel it.
41:42At the moment, I don't know if we were well aware of the gravity of the situation.
41:49We've got one and a half hours to ride this thing out before we're going to be able to completely
41:55stabilize the system.
41:58At this point, in order to assure we had every advantage we could, I declared a spacecraft emergency.
42:05A spacecraft emergency ensures that all attention is focused on the operation at hand.
42:16All available ground antennas across the US now attempt to make contact with the ISS.
42:24Oleg, we did not copy your last. Could you repeat your last?
42:29But still, the connection between the ground and space is patchy and unpredictable.
42:37And with the whole ISS structure now turning away from its communications satellites,
42:44US operations are about to lose contact with the crew.
42:49We were tracking the space station spin and we could predict we had minutes to communicate several steps of procedure
42:56to the crew before we were going to run out of time.
43:08The crew are instructed to lock the station's radiators, which are at risk of shearing off, while the solar panels
43:16are repositioned.
43:25Meanwhile, at mission control, the team formulates a plan to fight back against Nauka's thrusters.
43:37We knew as the Nauka module's thrusters were firing that we had to bring a bigger lever arm, a more
43:44powerful force to bear against these thrusters.
43:50For that extra muscle, ground control turns to the Zvezda service module, primary source for the ISS's propulsion systems.
44:03At this time, a cargo ship, Progress 78, is also docked to the station, on the opposite side to the
44:11misfiring Nauka.
44:16Crucially, both Progress 78 and the Zvezda have thrusters.
44:24Now typically, there will be days of analysis.
44:28In this specific case, this was unexpected, and so there was a little bit of engineering judgment that had to
44:33be applied,
44:34recognizing that the alternative and indecision would have been worse.
44:39Mission Control makes the decision to fire up the Zvezda and Progress 78 thrusters to set up an orbital wrestling
44:48match with the Nauka that they have to win.
44:55Hey Aki, just to update you guys, so right now we're in a little bit of a tug-of-war
44:59between rusters firing from both the SM and the MLM.
45:02And we're going through the best course of action right now. At this point, we have no further actions for
45:08you.
45:09For nearly 45 minutes, the ISS drifts out of control.
45:15A combined effort of the Zvezda and Progress 78 modules pushes back against Nauka.
45:22It's putting huge strain on the space station structure.
45:27This was like riding a bucking Bronco and we've got to make it the full eight seconds, except this time
45:32it was in orbit around the entire Earth.
45:36It will be another 45 minutes before Russian controllers can regain command of Nauka's thrusters.
45:49But then, all of a sudden...
45:55Aki, we can report that the MLM thrusters are no longer firing. We are back into attitude control. Rates are
46:01stable.
46:02Okay, copy.
46:05Nauka's thrusters fall silent.
46:09Its fuel tanks have run dry.
46:13The tug-of-war is over.
46:18As we brought the space station back to normal attitude, I think we all took a deep sigh of relief.
46:25After rotating one and a half times, around 540 degrees, mission controllers can finally bring the station to a halt
46:35and begin a controlled return to its correct attitude.
46:42The team that I had working in the control center that day was an example of performance that, to this
46:49day, I will always remember.
46:53Not because we did everything perfect, but because of how we came together.
47:05Since its launch in 1998, the ISS has been humanity's laboratory in the sky.
47:14Over the past 25 years, we have served over 5,000 researchers on the International Space Station,
47:22conducted over 4,000 different experiments, and published right around 4,000 papers.
47:32The fact that we've learned so much, not just about technology, but about ourselves, as a result of the ISS,
47:40that's a legacy that's not to be denied or discounted in any way.
47:47For many, the value of the ISS goes far beyond the physical.
47:53It's about perspective, hope, and the shared pursuit of something greater.
48:01The space station is not just a place where we produce science, but it's a place of emotions.
48:08It is a place of humanity.
48:10A place where we brought with us our own dreams.
48:33A quarter century of peaceful cooperation, multiple countries, multiple organizations, all working with the focus of trying to make humanity
48:41better.
48:42To me, that seems like a pretty powerful and lasting legacy.
48:47But with aging technology and the advent of new, more efficient space platforms, the station's days are numbered.
48:58The ISS was never meant to be a permanent structure in space.
49:05The International Space Station is scheduled to begin its final chapter in 2030.
49:13About a year and a half before the space station de-orbits, we will launch a crew that will stay
49:18there for a year.
49:19They will be in charge of getting the last bits of science and engineering we can out of this facility.
49:28About six months prior to the de-orbit process, that crew will come home, leaving the space station uncrewed as
49:34its altitude starts to lower.
49:41A de-orbit vehicle will attach to the ISS and gently guide the station into a slow, deliberate descent, where
49:49it will enter the thick layers of Earth's atmosphere at speeds over 17,000 miles per hour.
50:00Experiencing temperatures close to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
50:08We know some of it will burn up, but large pieces of it will survive through the atmospheric reentry.
50:15That's why we want to make sure that it's a controlled process so we safely hit the Pacific Ocean.
50:23The ISS's fiery disintegration will be the final act in its incredible journey.
50:36But the lessons we learned from its time in space, the technologies developed, and the unity it represents will echo
50:46in future space exploration for generations to come.
50:51The ISS is not just an international laboratory that's orbiting in space. It's much, much more than that.
51:01No matter where we come from, no matter the differences in political systems and the leaders that we have, we
51:08really can work together. We have that ability.
51:16It's just really fun to think about the future of space exploration and to know that I was, in a
51:21small way, part of the International Space Station story.
51:31The International Space Station is the crowning achievement of human ingenuity so far.
51:47The hit British drama Vigil is back, and danger now comes from the skies.
51:53After a weapons test ends in disaster, a cover-up sparks a race for the truth.
51:58Stream the new season of Vigil now on SBS On Demand.
52:24The International Space Station.
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