A US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts were yesterday set to blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) on a Russian-operated flight despite soaring tensions between Moscow and Washington over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
NASA’s Frank Rubio and Russia’s Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin were to take off from the Russia-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.
Rubio would become the first US astronaut to travel to the ISS on a Russian Soyuz rocket since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Photo: Reuters
In response, Western capitals including Washington have hit Moscow with unprecedented sanctions and bilateral ties have sunk to new lows. Space has managed to remain an outlier of cooperation between the two countries.
Following Rubio’s flight, Russia’s only active female cosmonaut Anna Kikina is expected to travel to the orbital station early next month aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon. She would become the fifth professional female cosmonaut from Russia or the Soviet Union to fly to space, and the first Russian to fly aboard a SpaceX spacecraft.
Russian cosmonauts and Western astronauts have sought to steer clear of the conflict that is raging back on Earth, especially when in orbit together.
A collaboration among Canada, the European Space Agency, Japan, Russian and the US, the ISS is split into two sections: the US orbital segment, and the Russian orbital segment.
The ISS depends on a Russian propulsion system to maintain its orbit, about 400km above sea level, with the US segment responsible for electricity and life support systems.
However, tensions in the space field have grown after Washington announced sanctions on Moscow’s aerospace industry — triggering warnings from former Roscosmos director-general Dmitry Rogozin, an ardent supporter of the Ukraine war.
Rogozin’s recently appointed successor, Yuri Borisov, later confirmed Russia’s long-mooted move to leave the ISS after 2024 in favor of creating its own orbital station.
NASA called the decision an “unfortunate development” that would hinder the scientific work performed on the ISS. Space analysts say that the construction of a new orbital station could take more than a decade and Russia’s space industry — a point of national pride — would not be able to flourish under heavy sanctions.
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