SPACE – An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts took off this Wednesday 21 September for the International Space Station (ISS), a journey that represents a rare sign of cooperation amid the tensions related to the offensive in Ukraine.
NASA’s Frank Rubio and Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Peteline of the Russian space agency Roscosmos took off aboard a Soyuz rocket from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 15:54 (Paris time).
Frank Rubio is the first American astronaut to travel to the ISS aboard a Russian rocket since Moscow troops began entering Ukraine on February 24. The West has meanwhile adopted an unprecedented series of sanctions against Moscow. The space industry was also targeted, but space remained, in some ways, an area of cooperation between Moscow and Washington.
Stay away from the conflict on Earth
After Wednesday’s flight, Anna Kikina, the only Russian cosmonaut on active duty, will travel to the orbital laboratory for the first time in early October aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon rocket. She will be the fifth Russian professional cosmonaut to go to space and the first woman to fly aboard a ship in the company of billionaire Elon Musk.
With these two flights scheduled, astronauts and cosmonauts from every country, especially those who have to go into orbit, have wanted to stay away from the tensions caused by the conflict that is raging on Earth. The result of a collaboration between the United States, Canada, Japan, the European Space Agency and Russia, the ISS is divided into two segments: one American and one Russian.
The ISS currently depends on a Russian propulsion system to maintain its orbit, some 400 kilometers above sea level, while the American segment operates electricity and life support systems.
Moscow wants to leave the ISS
Space tensions escalated after Washington announced sanctions against the Russian aerospace industry, prompting warnings from former Russian space chief and unconditional advocate for Ukraine intervention, Dmitry Rogozine.
Dmitry Rogozin’s successor, Yuri Borissov, later confirmed Russia’s decision to leave the ISS after 2024 in favor of creating its own orbital station. However, he hasn’t set a specific date. The US space agency has called the decision a “unfortunate development” which will hinder scientific work on the ISS, launched in 1998 at a time of hope for cooperation between the United States and Russia.
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