NASA might evacuate the International Space Station if oxygen reserves drop lower than 45 days. Then “we start getting ready to de-man” the station, Bill Gerstenmaier, manager of NASA’s space-station programme, said on 24 September.
At the moment there is enough oxygen left to support the ISS’s two astronauts until Christmas Day, when the next Progress supply vehicle is due. But the situation could get desperate if the station’s broken oxygen generator can’t be repaired and Progress’s launch is delayed.
The crew believes the oxygen generator, the Russian-made Elektron that splits water into oxygen and hydrogen, is not working because…
