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NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei was scheduled to land in Kazakhstan with two Russian cosmonauts aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on March 30, 2022.
However a February 26 video from Russian house company director Dmitry Rogozin first referred to as that into query, when he threatened to depart Vande Hei in house and even separate Russian and American components of the orbiting lab.
Rogozin was responding to feedback from US President Joe Biden, who on February 24 mentioned sanctions towards Russia will “degrade their aerospace business, together with their house program,” which is named Roscosmos.
In a March 5 social media put up, on Telegram, a state-owned Russian information company described Rogozin’s retort as a joke.
The threats from the staunch Putin ally come alongside a gradual stream of social media outbursts since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Rogozin’s Telegram and Twitter pages are rife with disinformation and state propaganda, and he has additionally apparently threatened to ship the ISS crashing into the US, Europe, India and China.
After posting a video of staff eradicating US and Japanese flags from a Russian rocket, Rogozin even sparked an internet spat with former US astronaut Scott Kelly, who replied, “with out these flags and the international change they carry in, your house program will not be value a rattling.”
The US has relied closely on Russia to entry the ISS since NASA’s final house shuttle took flight in 2011. Since 2020, NASA has additionally employed personal corporations like SpaceX to hold astronauts to the ISS, which orbits earth at a median distance of 420 km.
The primary items of the ISS have been launched in 1998. In 2000, an American and two Russians grew to become its first residents. Though divided into US and Russian sections, the ISS was lengthy seen as image of scientific partnership between the 2 geopolitical rivals.
Final yr, Russia introduced that it will be withdrawing from the ISS in 2025. In January, NASA revealed plans to decommission the ISS in 2031 and ship it crashing into the South Pacific Ocean.
Vande Hei arrived on the ISS on April 9, 2021. Subsequent week, he’ll break Scott Kelly’s file for the longest time spent in house by a US astronaut. Together with Vande Hei, there are at the moment seven folks aboard the ISS: 4 People, two Russians and a German.
NASA has not responded to Rogozin’s remarks and has mentioned that it expects Vande Hei to return to earth aboard the Russian spacecraft as deliberate, after a 355-day spaceflight. The longest ever spaceflight was accomplished by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov in 1995 following 437 days aboard the Mir house station.
Citing sanctions, earlier this month Russia cancelled a launch for a British satellite tv for pc firm.
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