The future of the International Space Station (ISS) looks unstable as Roscosmos general director Dmitry Rogozin said in a series of tweets over the weekend that the sanctions that had been placed on Russia as a result of the Ukrainian war were “illegal” and that the space agencies should demand their removal.
ISS
Credit: NASA. (Pingnews.com / Flickr / CC PDM 1.0)
Russia’s space boss said that “the restoration of normal relations between partners in the International Space Station and other joint projects” would only be possible “with the complete and unconditional lifting” of the sanctions (translated from Russian).
Rogozin also tweeted a photo of what looked like a letter from NASA's administrator Bill Nelson – although NASA did not publicly respond to either confirm or deny that the letter was official. Rogozin said that this was one of the responses from ISS partners after he had asked them to demand the lifting of sanctions.
The apparent NASA letter said that “the US continues to support international space cooperation” and that “sustaining safe and successful ISS operations remains a priority for the United States”.
Rogozin then shared subsequent alleged official letters by other ISS agencies, as he wrote that, “The purpose of the sanctions is to kill the Russian economy, plunge our people into despair and hunger, and bring our country to its knees. It is clear that they will not be able to do this, but the intentions are clear.”
Later in the tweet thread he said, “The position of our partners is clear: the sanctions will not be lifted.”
In the social media posts, Rogozin also said that the ISS and its partners would soon be reported to the leadership of “our” country – presumably Russia – although he did not elaborate on this point.
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At present the ISS is operated by five agencies: the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the State Space Corporation “Roscosmos” – Russia’s space corporation.
The ISS has been built in such a way that all five partners are interdependent, so its programs and systems cannot function well – if at all – without one of the five members. This is particularly true for Russia, which supplies the propulsion systems, the thrusters used in dynamic events, and one of the two life support systems is in its segment.
The Russian Soyuz spacecraft is also the main spacecraft that carries astronauts to and from the ISS.
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This is why Rogozin’s declarations on 2 April have caused such apprehension – if Russia was to go forward with its threats and withdraw from future missions, the ISS would come to a grinding halt. Currently, there are still three Americans, three Russians and a German on the ISS.
Since the attack on Ukraine began over a month ago, there have been growing concerns around the future of the station, although so far operations have continued almost as usual.
Last month Rogozin told Russian state-owned TV that Russia would stop selling rocket engines to America, but at the same, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and two cosmonauts safely returned to earth on Wednesday in a Soyuz spacecraft.
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