- 10 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:01Earth. 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.
00:44One day we may be getting ready for a spacewalk,
00:48and the next day we were doing some world-class science.
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.
01:11As astronauts push the boundaries of science and exploration, they face daily threats.
01:21You 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.
02:18The 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,
02:33while testing a new commercial spacecraft, the Boeing Starliner.
02:38Into 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.
03:01Because this job is like no other.
03:05You'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've got this throwing you all over the place.
03:52Requiring calm and quick thinking to resolve.
03:55Just put it down. Yeah. And that stops the leak.
04:00All 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.
04:47The research that we've been able to do has directly benefited life on planet Earth.
04:53And we're only just getting started.
05:04Every 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 16, 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.
08:09And 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.
08:41Thirty-eight minutes into the EVA, a warning alarm is triggered in Luca Parmitano's spacesuit.
08:49The carbon dioxide levels are too high.
08:53No two sensor battery.
08:57Copy, Luca.
08:58You measure 48.6.
09:00Copy that, Luca.
09:04Ordinarily, exhaled carbon dioxide would be controlled and removed by the portable life support system in Luca's backpack.
09:13The alarm could signal a dangerous buildup of the gas inside his spacesuit, which could lead to severe headaches, impaired
09:22judgment, and even death.
09:27We have a checklist telling us to check different parts of the suit to understand whether it is an actual
09:33alarm or whether the sensor itself is at fault.
09:39It said, did the reading go from normal to ludicrous instantly? If 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.
09:55Doubtful of the carbon dioxide reading and satisfied that Luca has no symptoms, Mission Control concludes that the sensor is
10:04faulty and the EVA can continue as planned.
10:10But six minutes later, Luca calls Mission Control again. There'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?
10:23Um, I am sweating, but it feels like a lot of water.
10:30And Luca, we got coffee.
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?
10:59Um, good questions. It's still the same and I cannot tell you the source.
11:07On Earth, water falls under the force of gravity. In space, it's much less predictable.
11:15It'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
11:33around 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
11:52like half of a grapefruit just kind of jiggling on his head.
11:59And then little bitty pieces of water droplets moving around inside.
12:05I see these are 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. I see it now. We're going.
12:25I don't understand where it's coming from. It can't be in the water.
12:27It has to be the bag.
12:29At the European Space Agency, astronaut instructor, Irv Stevena, 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 extraordinary release.
12:54And you suck it dry.
12:55Okay, the bag is dry now.
12:58But the situation doesn't improve.
13:03The bag is empty now.
13:06And there's something less than a liter in the back of his head.
13:12800 milliliters, maybe.
13:13All right, Chris.
13:15More water collects in Luca's helmet.
13:18Yeah, I'm freaky. It might not be the water bag.
13:20The 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
13:35prevent 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 disappear 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.
14:57Before I saw Luca disappearing behind the Z1 truss, and I wanted to say out loud, Luca, stop. Hold on.
15:07I'm coming with you.
15:08It 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.
16:20I felt it coming closer and closer to my forehead, and I thought, okay, this might cover both of my
16:28ears at the same time.
16:29Maybe more than a simple hindrance. It may be a natural problem.
16:35I just completed a maneuver where I put myself upside down.
16:40So all my terms or reference 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.
17:13And to make matters worse, water enters Luca's calms, causing it to malfunction.
17:22Hi, Chris. I hear you Luca, go ahead.
17:29Luca, I hear you?
17:31Yeah.
17:34There are two microphones here.
17:35And what happened was that when he talked about it, we heard...
17:37...and there were almost terrifying sounds for us who saw it from the control center.
17:46So we realized there was something that happened very badly and was very dangerous.
17:57My memories are of just trying to feel around, making sure that I would grab the correct handles...
18:05...in a pressurized glove, which gives you no feedback, no tactile feedback.
18:13And 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.
18:25And 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.
19:24If 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 of
19:39that 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.
19:55The gentle tug of the waist tether leads Luca back to the airlock.
20:02But he's not safe yet.
20:05Before he can take his helmet off, the airlock must be sealed and repressurized.
20:12With 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.
20:35And 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,
20:48Chris must ready the airlock before crewmate Karen Nyberg can repressurize it.
20:58As they speed through the normally 15 minute long airlock procedure,
21:03ground 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.
21:15Luke, 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, his voice is going out or he can't hear you, but I'm trying to
21:34see him.
21:37Right about then, I grabbed his hand.
21:40Squeeze my hand if you're fine.
21:44Here, squeeze my hand.
21:45Everything 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.
21:59She'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 going to be
22:18all right.
22:19He looks fine. He looks miserable, but 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. If you could have some towels ready, that would be great.
22:48We have him 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.
23:08The hatch is open, Shane.
23:12Luca's going to the crew lock.
23:13Copy, Chris. Thanks.
23:15The sense of friendship, camaraderie, it's a form of love 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 to see.
23:39I was obviously relieved. I knew that the ordeal was just about to end when they took the helmet off.
23:48I 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.
24:54But 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, with 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.
25:27A 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 in finding some of the crystals associated with those proteins
25:52that they weren't able to do on the ground and develop drugs to target those.
25:57Other experiments focus on the astronauts themselves and the impact the microgravity environment has on their bodies.
26:06A 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 on the human body in space
26:44that we cannot on the ground.
26:49Every part of the space station is crucial to conduct this science and maintain the lives of its inhabitants.
26:57All the things we might take for granted here on Earth, air, water, food,
27:02have to be designed, calculated and engineered to work properly in microgravity.
27:10Even using the toilet.
27:11Close the lid.
27:13You 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 to pull urine and feces away from the body and into
27:33the 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.
27:55Going number two is a little bit more, you really reread every little line.
28:01There is a plastic liner in there where your deposit goes.
28:07If you make the mess, you got to clean up the mess, so you don't want to be that one.
28:10You take this red tab, you pull it off the rim, and we do have a stick.
28:17And you push it down in there, and 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.
28:34Water 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, all of that moisture gets captured by the environmental control system
28:51and put back into the water processor.
28:56This fundamental part of the space station's environmental control and life support system
29:02allows 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, it is the responsibility of the crew to
29:34maintain 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.
29:52With 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.
30:38Incoming particles can reach speeds of up to 162,000 miles per hour, up to 50 times faster than a
30:46speeding 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.
31:29A 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.
31:48So from a probabilistic perspective, the Russian modules are much more susceptible to small micrometeoroid penetrations.
31:58On the flip side, the US modules have very, very thick skin.
32:03So smaller micrometeoroids are not likely to penetrate the US module.
32:09But 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.
32:23I 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,
32:38the probability of catastrophic collision increases.
32:42The good thing about low Earth orbit is we've seen this huge boom of private companies, commercialization, and it's everywhere.
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,
33:20repeatedly expand and contract until they break up or sometimes even explode.
33:28And these are just the objects we are able to track.
33:31Those 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.
34:51Every 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.
35:36It 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, Zebulon Scoville takes over flight director
35:52duties.
35:54I did a quick handover and plugged in, thinking that we were 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, and 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, and so this is where we had to very quickly try
37:00to understand, what is this venting overboard?
37:04What is it doing to ISS? How will we first make sure this crew is going to be safe, and
37:09second, get the vehicle under control?
37:12Station Houston on 2, we need you in 2.702. This is in actual.
37:19French astronaut Thomas Pesquet and his six crewmates are on board at the time.
37:25It's not an training.
37:29This is the message we don't have so much desire to hear when we are in a mission of six
37:33months, and I always remember it.
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.
37:56On a des panneaux solaires qui font 35 mètres de chaque côté, 70 mètres de longueur, et qui sont très,
38:00très fragiles, en fait.
38:03L'accélération, de les faire tourner, ça va générer une force centrifuge, et ça, malheureusement, ça peut tout arracher.
38:10We 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.
38:21C'est vraiment très, très dangereux. On pourrait casser la structure. C'est très fragile, une station spatiale. Ça n
38:27'a même pas besoin de porter son poids.
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 or stable flight, we're looking good.
39:12The team takes off a checklist of possible causes.
39:19Until a plausible suspect emerges.
39:23One 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.
39:40To do his mission, to move, to capture the sun, to recharge his solar panels.
39:44And 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 2.
40:01We are at an 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,
40:20there's concern that the joints of the aging ship can't take the strain.
40:26So, the decision is made to shut the gyros down.
40:31Reducing the stress on the attachment points that connect the station's modules to the space station.
40:37The 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 listened to real-time translations of the communications between Moscow's mission control and the cosmonauts on
41:18board the station.
41:20In Houston, flight controllers, please, can you confirm or not whether MLM thrusters are still firing?
41:30Do you see, do you hear anything?
41:33No.
41:33Go on, pas.
41:35I can confirm.
41:37That the thrust is are still firing.
41:38They have just fired and we could feel it.
41:49We've got one and a half hours to ride this thing out before we're going to be able to
41:54completely stabilize the system.
41:58At this point, in order to assure we had every advantage we could, I declared a spacecraft
42:04emergency.
42:05A spacecraft emergency ensures that all attention is focused on the operation at hand.
42:16All available ground antennas across the U.S. now attempt to make contact with the ISS.
42:28But 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,
42:44U.S. 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
42:54several steps of procedure to 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
43:14while the solar panels are 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,
43:43a more powerful force, to bear against these thrusters.
43:50For that extra muscle, ground control turns to the Zvezda service module,
43:56primary source for the ISS's propulsion systems.
44:03At this time, a cargo ship, Progress 78, is also docked to the station,
44:09on the opposite side to the misfiring 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
44:32judgment that had to be applied, recognizing that the alternative and indecision would have
44:37been worse.
44:40Mission control makes the decision to fire up the Zvezda and Progress 78 thrusters,
44:46to set up an orbital wrestling match 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 thrusters firing from both the SM and the MLM.
45:02And we're going through the best course of action right now.
45:06At this point, we have no further actions for you.
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,
45:31except this time it 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...
45:55Nauka, we can report that the MLM thrusters are no longer firing.
45:59We are back into attitude control. Rates are stable.
46:02OK, copy.
46:05Nauka's thrusters fall silent.
46:09Its fuel tanks have run dry.
46:12The tug of war is over.
46:17As we brought the space station back to normal attitude,
46:20I think we all took a deep sigh of relief.
46:24After rotating one and a half times, around 540 degrees,
46:30mission controllers can finally bring the station to a halt
46:34and begin a controlled return to its correct attitude.
46:41The team that I had working in the control center that day
46:45was an example of performance that, to this day, 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
47:19on the International Space Station,
47:22conducted over 4,000 different experiments,
47:26and published right around 4,000 papers.
47:32The fact that we've learned so much, not just about technology,
47:36but 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.
47:52It's about perspective, hope, and the shared pursuit of something greater.
48:01The Space Station is not just a place where we produce science,
48:05but it's a place of emotions.
48:08It is a place of humanity.
48:10A place where we brought with us our own dreams.
48:17I think it's absolutely phenomenal.
48:19There's the technical exploit, but I think that the dream,
48:22and then the consumption of the world,
48:25the multilateralism and scientific cooperation between countries,
48:28which are behind that, for me, are even more famous.
48:33A quarter century of peaceful cooperation,
48:36multiple countries, multiple organizations,
48:39all working with the focus of trying to make humanity better.
48:42To me, that seems like a pretty powerful and lasting legacy.
48:47But with aging technology,
48:49and the advent of new, more efficient space platforms,
48:54the 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 Orbis,
49:17we will launch a crew that will stay there for a year.
49:19They will be in charge of getting the last bits of science and engineering we can
49:23out of this facility.
49:28About six months prior to the deorbit process,
49:30that crew will come home, leaving the space station uncrewed
49:34as its altitude starts to lower.
49:41A deorbit vehicle will attach to the ISS
49:44and gently guide the station into a slow, deliberate descent,
49:48where it will enter the thick layers of Earth's atmosphere.
49:52at speeds over 17,000 miles per hour.
49:59Experiencing temperatures close to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
50:08We know some of it will burn up,
50:10but large pieces of it will survive through the atmospheric re-entry.
50:15That's why we want to make sure that it's a controlled process,
50:17so 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 learn from its time in space,
50:39the technologies developed,
50:41and the unity it represents,
50:45will echo in future space exploration for generations to come.
50:50The ISS is not just an international laboratory that's orbiting in space.
50:56It's much, much more than that.
51:00No matter where we come from,
51:02no matter the differences in political systems and the leaders that we have,
51:07we really can work together.
51:10We have that ability.
51:16It's just really fun to think about the future of space exploration,
51:19and to know that I was in a small way part of the International Space Station's 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.
51:52After 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.
52:23воз automotive has ji-a-ぶ-jriem,
52:30has been working on the CO2 которой with its support in the future.
52:30The International Spaceété諄pics
52:30is combating the U.S.