{"id":524200,"date":"2026-06-29T13:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T13:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/524200\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T13:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T13:39:13","slug":"iss-risk-margin-alarming-as-nasa-nears-2030-extension-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/524200\/","title":{"rendered":"ISS Risk Margin \u2018Alarming\u2019 As NASA Nears 2030 Extension Date"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time is running out to keep the ISS in orbit, as the chair of a NASA advisory committee warned last week that risk margin for regular operations \u201cis now reduced to an alarming level.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the worry extends to parts, too: the supply chain for the decades-old spacesuits is wearing thin, according to Susan Helms, a former astronaut who chairs the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is increasingly difficult for NASA to ensure the ISS risks remain manageable for day-to-day operations, with enough contingency margins,\u201d Helms said during a June 22 meeting of the panel.<\/p>\n

Golden oldie: The ISS is a tremendous research asset. It has hosted astronauts continuously for 25+ years, while proving out many private experiments and space-tech parts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But some of those parts are getting old. Astronauts will spacewalk Tuesday to repair Canadarm2<\/a> to allow the spice (food and supplies) to continue flowing through cargo shipments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSystems like Canadarm2 were designed from the beginning with replaceable components and were planned with maintenance in mind,\u201d Bill Spetch, NASA ISS program operations integration manager, said during a Thursday spacewalk briefing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for the decades-old spacesuits? \u201cWe have four great suits on board right now,\u201d Spetch said, adding a fifth is coming this fall.<\/p>\n

In the air tonight: Meanwhile, the ISS has been battling leaks for years. Early this month, astronauts sheltered in a SpaceX Dragon<\/a> while Roscosmos considered\u2014then abandoned\u2014making a repair. All is under control now, Spetch added.<\/p>\n

There might be industry replacements for ISS coming, but work on NASA\u2019s Commercial LEO Destinations<\/a> program is also under pressure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Load More<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Time is running out to keep the ISS in orbit, as the chair of a NASA advisory committee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,82],"class_list":["post-524200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}