Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NASA has stated that the International Space Station (ISS) would continue to operate normally, collaborating with other international partners as well as Russia. Despite the promise of peace and collaboration that the ISS is meant to embody, space research remains an armed realm. According to The Independent, “the International Space Station team is continuing to safely undertake scientific activities in low-Earth orbit.”
“Ongoing station activities include efforts to fly astronauts to the orbiting outpost and safely return them to Earth,” says the statement. Josef Aschbacher, the head of the European Space Agency, made an equally impartial remark on the situation.
Following the publishing of NASA’s statement, the tone on the other side has shifted dramatically. Following US President Joe Biden’s sanctions against Russia, Roscomos Director Dmitry Rogozin took to Twitter to threaten that Russia will leave the joint venture. Without Russia, he believes the ISS would fall to Europe, the United States, or possibly India and China.
The Russian section of the station is in charge of keeping the station in the proper orbit. It may be conceivable to do so without Russia, but this has not been considered. Rogozin referenced Q-conspiracy anon’s theories about Trump in his tweets, and he appeared to take a jab at Musk’s satellite mega constellations, which have alarmed astronomers and space authorities.
“The engines of the Russian Progress MS cargo ships generate entirely the correction of the station’s orbit, its avoidance of deadly encounters with space junk, with which your bright businesspeople have fouled the near-Earth orbit,” he tweeted. This isn’t the first time Musk and Rogozin have clashed.
Rogozin inquired if the US was intending to launch its astronauts up into space with a trampoline after the US imposed sanctions on Russia following the invasion of Crimea in 2014. At the time, the US was utilizing Russian rockets. Musk responded that the trampoline was operating after the success of the SpaceX Crew Demo-2 launch, a joke that Rogozin seemed to enjoy.
After being postponed due to weather on Wednesday, NASA and SpaceX’s historic launch to transport two astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on board a commercial spaceship has been rescheduled for Saturday, May 30 at 3.22 p.m. EDT, and you can watch it live. This is NASA’s Commercial Crew Program’s first crewed launch, as well as the first crewed launch from American soil since the Space Shuttle Atlantis was decommissioned in 2011.
