Russia has agreed to bring an American astronaut from space to Earth, despite the confrontational relations between the two world powers over the crisis in Ukraine.
The U.S. astronaut, Mark Vande Hei, has been in space for 355 days, and was afraid he might be left behind on the ISS because of Russia’s military operations in Ukraine strongly opposed by the U.S.
But Mark Vande Hei will travel aboard a Russian capsule to Kazakhstan. It was indicated that the U.S. astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts will be brought back to Earth in the Russian capsule.
Nasa’s International Space Station (ISS) programme manager, Joel Montalbano, had confirmed, “I can tell you for sure Mark is coming home… We are in communication with our Russian colleagues. There’s no fuzz on that.”
The ISS programme manager revealed that astronauts in space are “aware of what’s going on” in the world, but they still work as a team.
It was declared that under international space law, astronauts from all nations must “provide all possible help” to other astronauts when needed, “including emergency landing in a foreign country or at sea”.
At the beginning of the Ukraine conflicts, there were reports of U.S. astronauts separating from Russia astronauts in space. However, the U.S. government despite severe sanctions, maintained that the U.S. will not discontinue space cooperation with Russia.
The chief of the Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, had warned that sanctions could cause technical issues to the ISS, the ISS Programme Manager, Montalbano, however, assured that Space Station has been operating without hitches.
Montalbano had maintained: “all these activities have continued for 20 years and nothing has changed in the last three weeks. Our control centres operate successfully, flawlessly, seamlessly.”
It was revealed that the U.S. controls power and life support aboard the ISS while Russia controls the propulsion and others.
The chief of the Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, had earlier in the month threatened that Roscosmos would halt rocket sales to the U.S. if sanctions against Russia are not restrained.