Dmitry Rogozin and Roscosmos, the Russian space agency he directs, did not threaten to bring the International Space Station to the head of Americans and Europeans. And this despite the fact that the conflict in Ukraine is already having repercussions on the space activities underway and on the collaborations between Russia and its historical Western partners. While these lines are being written, in fact, the question and answer via social networks alternate: at 6 am this morning, Rogozin – which it is good to remember, is a loyalist of Putin and was deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation – announced that, in the face of of the technological sanctions imposed in Moscow, with immediate effect Roscosmos is suspending “cooperation with European partners in organizing space launches from the Kourou cosmodrome and withdrawing its technical personnel, including ground personnel, from Guyana “.
The Venera D program, in collaboration with NASA, will also be stopped: “I find it inappropriate – added Rogozin – the continued participation of the United States in the Russian project for the development and creation of an interplanetary station“.
“ExoMars continua”, However, was quick to reply Josef Aschbacher, the director of ESA, that is the European Space Agency, who works with Roscosmos for the launch program destined for Mars, which is scheduled to take off next autumn.
Although it must be emphasized that the attempt to space diplomacy of Aschbacher is already a partial revision of what he declared yesterday, when, again via Twitter, he recalled how space constitutes “a bridge for civil collaboration”And confirmed the regular continuation of operations on the ISS and the launch campaign of ExoMars, it is clear that at present the situation may evolve in an unpredictable way.
Hands on the Station
At least so far, however, no one has said they want to use the ISS as a weapon, the orbiting symbol of international peaceful cooperation, a masterpiece of engineering and diplomacy that crystallizes the joint work of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada. Without considering it an orbiting idyll – indeed the two segments that make up the station are, at least from a bureaucratic point of view, clearly distinct – the fact that the ISS has not been threatened is not a trivial detail.
In the next few lines we will try to clarify why, but in the meantime, let’s go in order: on February 24, the White House and its allies imposed export sanctions, in an attempt to prevent Russia from accessing the cutting-edge technologies necessary for war and space industries. “We will cut more than half of Russia’s high-tech imports“Commented the American president, Joe Biden,”and this will deal a severe blow to their ability to continue modernizing the military. It will degrade their aerospace industry, including their space program“. Rogozin’s response, released late yesterday afternoon, raised the alarm in most of the Italian media: there was no lack of those who accused him and his agency of the intention, albeit veiled, to intimidate States United and Europe with the sudden deorbitation of the International Space Station, a 450-ton structure whose navigation (with guidance and control) is precisely the Russian segment, the Ros.
None of this: Rogozin’s response, certainly not relaxing, is however more complex and should be fully understood, because already in the mocking tone and in his addressing directly to the American president he represents space as a geopolitical garrison, as well as a field of technical development. -scientific and commercial. We report below the first (faithful) translation widespread in Italy, by Roberto Paradisoblogger specializing in cosmonautics:
“Alzheimer’s Sanctions ” (in the original text it is played on the fact that, since there is no “H” in Russian and having to pronounce it as our cat “G”, “Alzheimer” becomes “Alz-gamer” and therefore evokes the English “game”, game , ed).
Biden said the new sanctions will affect the Russian space program. Ok. Let’s see the details:
1. Do you want to block our access to radiation-resistant space microelectronics? You have already officially done so in 2014.
As you have noticed, however, we continue to make our own spaceship. And we will do this by expanding the production of the necessary components and devices at home.
2. Do you want to ban all countries from launching their spaceship on Russian rockets which are the most reliable in the world?
You are already doing this and planning to finally destroy the global space competition market from January 1, 2023 by imposing sanctions on our launch vehicles. We are aware. This is also nothing new. We are ready to act in this case too.
3. Do you want to destroy our cooperation on the ISS?
You already do this by limiting exchanges between our training centers for cosmonauts and astronauts (Rogozin refers to the fact that, a month ago, a visa was denied to a cosmonaut ready to travel to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for a training session. An impasse then resolved by the direct mediation of Roscomos’ number one and his NASA counterpart, Bill Nelson, ed).
Or do you want to manage the ISS yourself?
Perhaps President Biden is off topic, so we explain that the station’s orbit correction, its avoidance of dangerous space encounters, see the garbage your talented businessmen polluted near-Earth orbit with. , is produced exclusively by the engines of the Russian Progress MS cargo ships. If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from an uncontrolled return, which could bring it down to the United States or Europe? There is also the possibility of helmets on a 500-ton structure in India and China. Do you want to threaten them with such a prospect? The ISS does not fly over Russia, so all the risks are yours. Are you ready for this?
Gentlemen, when planning sanctions, be careful if they are not Alzheimer’s. To prevent the same penalties from falling on your head. And not just figuratively.
Therefore, for the time being, as a partner, I suggest you don’t act like an irresponsible gambler, disavow the claim about ‘Alzheimer’s sanctions. Friendly advice “.
Delicate issues of space awareness
It is obviously the last two paragraphs of the answer that have stirred up the media. However, some clarifications are necessary: although, with evident propaganda intent, Rogozin forgets the newfound autonomy of human access to space allowed to the United States by SpaceX since May 2020 and, when he mentions the increase in space junk caused by the launch activities of the “talented business people“, You avoid remembering the identical effects of the Russian anti-satellite tests, guilty a few weeks ago of having sown more than 1500 space debris in low orbit, the number one of Roscosmos raises the increasingly urgent question of the so-called space awareness, a new awareness in the use of orbits, especially those closest to our planet. An awareness that cannot afford to be partial, but that must be jointly regulated and shared by anyone with extra-terrestrial ambitions.
This recall and the underlining of a possible uncontrolled fall of the ISS on China, Russia’s privileged space partner, should suggest more detailed reactions among those who, frightened by Rogozin’s utterances, attribute to him the ambitions of an extraterrestrial kamikaze. Not that the statements of the Russian director are friendly, just as the stops made official a few hours ago are not friendly, but from there to think that Moscow wants to launch a space base on the territories of others, the transition is not automatic.
Indeed, although its decommissioning in 2031 is now official, the fact that the International Space Station and the activities it hosts have not been jeopardized, even while international relations inaugurated decades ago beyond the atmosphere are interrupted, gives hope that the space outpost retains its status, not only symbolic, of a privileged diplomatic sphere. It is comforting to remember that the first extra-terrestrial collaboration between the United States and the then Soviet Union, the Apollo-Soyuz test program, dates back to 1975, at the height of the Cold War. “When the bureaucrats beat the drums on Earth, we continued to work together in orbit”Confirmed Paolo Nespoli, former ESA astronaut and veteran of space missions and stories.
It is only a hope, of course. Preserve it without sounding terrestrial alarms that no one in space can (and will) hear.