War in Ukraine: Fears that International Space Station will spiral out of control in US or Europe

Side loss war in Ukraine could be Russia’s multifaceted space cooperation with the West, including on the International Space Station (ISS).

In fact, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, stated that “if you block your cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from going out of orbit uncontrollably and falling into the region of the USA or Europe? There is also a possibility of a drop of 500 tonnes in India or China. You want to threaten them with such a prospect; The ISS does not pass over Russia, so the risks are all yours. “Are you ready for them?”

In a series of Twitter posts, such as “Do you want to ruin our ISS collaboration?”, According to Space.com and Live Science, Roscosmos CEO warned that new sanctions against his country can have very unpleasant consequences. Restrictions on high-tech exports, recently imposed by President Biden, It is estimated that they will negatively affect the Russian space program. As the US president himself said, “This will be a blow to their ability to continue to modernize their military. It will also hit their aerospace industry, including their space program. “

The cooperation is currently ongoing

However, the US space agency (NASA) clarified that cooperation with Russia in space – and in particular in the ISS – will continue, although this could change in the future. “NASA continues to work with all of its international partners, including the state-owned space company Roscosmos, on the ongoing safe operations of the ISS,” he said. New (US) export control measures will continue to enable US space cooperation;Russia».

The ISS is an international partnership of many countries, which have shared responsibilities. The Russian section of the Station is responsible for guiding, navigating and controlling the entire ISS, while the Russian transport vessel Progress periodically makes upward corrections along the Station, to ensure that it remains at an altitude of about 400 km and does not will sink into the Earth’s atmosphere (however, the Cygnus ship of the American Northrop Grumman recently arrived at the ISS with the aim of doing something similar to Progress for the first time).

Rogozin also criticized the United States for already reducing contacts between Russian cosmonauts and other astronauts, and said that if this worsened, it could lead to the collapse of cooperation for the ISS. This season seven astronauts are at the Station: four Americans, two Russians and a German.

Rogozin said Biden was unaware that, thanks to Russian systems, the station could avoid dangerous “encounters” with space “garbage”, which he said came from “ambitious US businessmen”, a possible hint for Elon Musk of Space X, which has already launched more than 2,000 of its small satellite satellites under development of the huge Starlink satellite Internet network.

In 2014, again due to the tension in Ukraine, Rogozin had caused an international sensation when he said that American astronauts should go to space with a trampoline, if they do not use the Russian Soyuz, reports APE-MPE. It was a time when Russia was the only country that could send manned missions to the ISS, something that has now changed thanks to Space X.

Analysts’ doubt

On the European side, the Director-General of the European Space Agency (ESA), German Jozef Asbacher, has stated that co-operation with Russia is continuing normally, although analysts have doubts as to whether this policy will survive. It is recalled that Europe and Russia are preparing, as part of their joint ExoMars mission, to launch the rover Rosalind Franklin to Mars, which is scheduled to take place in September this year from the Russian cosmonaut Baikonur in Kazakhstan.

On the other hand, the British Space Agency acknowledged that future space cooperation with Russia could prove problematic, in light of developments in Ukraine. As he stated, “it is right to raise questions about future cooperation with Russia after the illegal invasion of Ukraine. “We are in consultation with our ESA partners and are closely monitoring the situation.”

“For years the European sector has operated in complete isolation from the political level, but with this crisis this cannot continue. “There will be a global data change,” said Jean-Jacques Tortora, director of the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI). In particular, he stressed, the stop of France is expected, which operates the European spacecraft in Kourou, French Guiana in South America, from where the European aerospace company Arianespace launches the missiles of Ariane 5 and Vega, but in recent years uses auxiliary and Russian Soyuz ».