Independent operation of ISS Russian, US segments impossible - NASA

NEW YORK, March 14. /TASS/. Independent operation of the Russian and American segments of the International Space Station (ISS) is impossible, they need each other to operate the station, NASA ISS Program Manager Joel Montalbano said on Monday. "We are interdependent across the segments," he said when asked whether the segments can operate independently. "There's is no capability." "We both need each other to operate the International Space Station," he added. NASA has received no signals from Russia about plans to change the operation of the International Space Station and believes that work will be continues as scheduled, he said. "And as I talked earlier, you know, the interdependency that we had between the US and the Russian segment, that is why we are able to operate and how we're operating at this time. There's no indication from our Russian partners that they want to do anything different. So, we are planning to continue operations as we are today," he said. According to Joel Montalbano, NASA continues contacts with Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos on the current operation of the International Space Station. "We have a Soyuz launch this Friday and operations continue to go well at Baikonur and we're communicating with our Russian colleagues on that operation," he said. "We have on March 30 the return of a Soyuz." "We are in communication with our Russian colleagues," he added. Read more