For the first time, a conflict on Earth could endanger the safety of astronauts. The madness of war propaganda, for now only of propaganda we are talking about, involves those who have worked peacefully in orbit, Russians, Europeans and Americans together for over twenty years, on board the International Space Station (ISS). The head of the Russian Space Agency (Roskosmos), Dmitry Rogozin, responded to the technological sanctions imposed by the US after the invasion of Ukraine, with a series of tweets. Which end with a not so veiled threat: “The ISS could fall on the USA, on Europe or on some other country. But not about Russia. You are ready?”.
Cut Russia out
The White House on February 24, together with the allies, imposed severe sanctions on exports, in an attempt to prevent Russia from accessing the cutting-edge technology necessary for the war industry as well as for the space industry. US President Joe Biden then said: “We will cut more than half of Russia’s high-tech imports and this will deal a severe blow to their ability to continue modernizing their armed forces. It will degrade their aerospace industry, including their space program. “
In the evening, Rogozin’s tweets: a long thread with which the director general of the Russian Space Agency responds by making a mockery of the sanctions. Biden said the new sanctions will affect the Russian space program. Ok. The details remain to be understood: 1. Do you want to block our access to radiation-resistant space microelectronics? You have already officially done so in 2014. We, however, continue to make our own spaceship. And we will do it by expanding the production of the necessary components and devices in our home ”. “Do you want to ban all countries from launching their spaceship on the most reliable Russian rockets in the world? – he continues – for this too we are ready ”.
The ISS could crash on the USA or Europe
Then one thing that had never been heard, not at these levels. “Do you want to destroy our cooperation on the ISS? Or do you want to manage the ISS yourself? Explain to him (to President Biden) that the correction of the station’s orbit, to avoid dangerous collisions with space debris, with which your talented businessmen have polluted the near-Earth orbit, is produced exclusively by the engines of the Cargo Ships. Progress MS. If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from an uncontrolled deorbit and falling on the United States or Europe? ”.
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When some space debris needs to be avoided, the Space Station uses the engines of the Russian cargo shuttles, the Progress, which are docked at the orbiting laboratory. Without them, a possible impact with space debris (an event increasingly probable given the number of fragments and satellites in orbit) could jeopardize the Station, on which, we recall, Americans, Russians and Europeans work together. At the moment four NASA astronauts, Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, Kayla Barron and Mark Vande Hei, two Russians, Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov and a European ESA, the German Matthias Maurer, occupy the ISS.
Biden Alz-geimer
Rogozin then underlines that the ISS practically never flies over Russian soil, so the risk is that an object of “500 tons” could fall on American and European soil but also on “China or India.” Do you want to threaten them with such a prospect? The ISS does not fly over Russia, so all risks are yours. Are you ready to face them? ”. And then he moves on to insults directed at Biden: “Gentlemen, when planning sanctions, check if the person proposing them has Alzheimer’s disease. To prevent your penalties from falling on your head. And not just figuratively. Therefore, for the time being, as a partner, I suggest that you do not behave like an irresponsible gambler, that you disavow the “Alzheimer’s sanctions” claim. Friendly advice “. With a play on words that only those who know the Russian language can understand on the fly. Alzheimer in Russian is spelled and pronounced Alzgeimer, and the double meaning with English (“gamer”) implies the judgment on a player who does not possess the faculties of him. A typical attack of pro-Putin propaganda against the United States.
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Europe and Russia together on Mars
But there are not only Russia and America. Europe is also involved, it is in fact one of the major contributors to international cooperation aboard the ISS, and is also part of NATO, opposed to Russia in this crisis. The Exomars 2022 mission is scheduled to take off in September, bringing a rover to the surface of Mars. The European partner is precisely Russia, which has built the platform, the lander, on which the robot Rosalind Franklin will “land” at the beginning of 2023. And it will have to leave from the Baikonur cosmodrome at the head of a Russian Proton rocket.
The director general of ESA, Josef Aschbacher, has published a tweet to reassure, at least for now, on the operations that the European Space Agency is underway in collaboration with the Russians. “Despite the current conflict, civil space cooperation remains a bridge. ESA continues to work on all its programs, including the launch campaign for the ISS and ExoMars, in order to honor commitments with member states and partners. . We continue to monitor the evolution of the situation “.
Apparently a Republic, the work of the astronauts aboard the International Space Station is also proceeding regularly and so are the launch operations at the European spaceport of Kourou, in French Guiana. The timeline of the Exomars program remains unchanged, the launch window is expected to open on September 20, 2022.
The space of the last two decades has proved to be an environment in which it is possible to collaborate peacefully, even during international conflicts and tensions (most recently, that of 2014 with the annexation of Crimea). What will happen to all of this now? ESA has not yet responded to Rogozin’s threats. A NASA spokesperson told the Cnn that “The new export control measures will continue to allow for US-Russian civil space cooperation. No changes are planned to the agency’s support for ongoing operations in orbit and ground stations.” But Rogozin’s words dig a deep crack in this scenario.