Moscow. The head of Russia’s space program said Saturday that the future of the International Space Station hangs in the balance after space agencies from Canada, the United States and the European Union failed to comply in time with Russian demands to lift sanctions on Russian companies and hardware.
Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, told the press that the Russian state agency is preparing a report on the prospects for international cooperation at the station, in order to present them to federal authorities “after Roscosmos has finished its analysis.”
Rogozin hinted on Russian state television that Western sanctions, some of which predate Russia’s current military operations in Ukraine, could affect the operation of Russian spacecraft servicing ISS cargo flights. Russia also sends manned missions to the orbital base.
He stressed that Western partners need the space station and “can’t deal without Russia, because no one but us can deliver fuel to the station.”
Rogozin added that “only the engines of our cargo aircraft are capable of correcting the orbit of the ISS, keeping it safe and free of debris.”
Hours later, Rogozin wrote on his Telegram channel that he received responses from his Western counterparts promising to promote “more cooperation on the ISS and its operations.”
He reiterated his point of view that “the restoration of normal relations between the partners in the ISS and other joint (space) projects is possible only with the complete and unconditional elimination” of sanctions, which he described as illegal.
Space is one of the latest areas of cooperation between Moscow and Western nations. The United States and Russia were in talks to resume joint space flights when Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine last month, triggering unprecedented sanctions on Russian state-linked entities.
So far, the United States and Russia still cooperate in space. A NASA astronaut returned to Earth on Wednesday with two Russian cosmonauts on a Russian spacecraft after the United States set a record of 355 days on the International Space Station.
Mark Vande Hei landed in Kazakhstan in a Soyuz capsule together with Pyotr Dubrov, who also spent the last year in space, and Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Space Agency. The wind flipped the capsule on its side after landing and the trio headed out for the afternoon, one at a time.
Vande Hei’s return followed customary procedures. A small team of NASA doctors and other employees were on hand when she landed and immediately returned home with the 55-year-old astronaut.
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