US, Russia co-operate on space mission
A US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts blasted off to the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday on a Russian-operated flight, in a rare instance of co-operation between Moscow and Washington.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos and Nasa distributed live footage of the launch from Kazakhstan. Commentators speaking over the feed said it was stable and that “the crew is feeling well”.
Nasa’s Frank Rubio and Russia’s Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin make up the crew that launched from the Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome. Rubio is the first US astronaut to travel to the ISS on a Russian Soyuz rocket since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into pro-Western Ukraine on February 24.
In response, Western capitals including Washington have hit Moscow with sanctions, and bilateral ties have sunk to new lows.
Russia’s only active female cosmonaut Anna Kikina is expected to travel to the orbital station early next month aboard a Space X Crew Dragon.
She will become only the fifth professional woman cosmonaut from Russia or the Soviet Union to fly to space, and the first Russian to fly aboard a spacecraft of Space X, the company of billionaire Elon Musk.
Russian cosmonauts and Western astronauts have sought to steer clear of the conflict that is raging on Earth, especially when in orbit together.
A collaboration among the US, Canada, Japan, the European Space Agency and Russia, the ISS is split into the US orbital segment and the Russian orbital segment. At present, the ISS depends on a Russian propulsion system to maintain its orbit, about 400km above sea level, with the US segment responsible for electricity and life support systems.
Tensions in the space field have grown after Washington announced sanctions on Moscow’s aerospace industry, triggering warnings from Russia’s former space chief Dmitry Rogozin, a supporter of the Ukraine war. Rogozin’s recently appointed successor Yuri Borisov later confirmed Russia’s move to leave the ISS after 2024 in favour of creating its own orbital station.
Nasa called the decision an “unfortunate development” that would hinder scientific work on the ISS.
Space analysts say that the construction of a new orbital station could take more than a decade and Russia’s space industry would not be able to flourish under heavy sanctions.
The ISS was launched in 1998 at a time of hope for US-Russia co-operation following their space race competition during the Cold War.
During that era, the Soviet space programme flourished. It boasted a number of accomplishments that included sending the first man into space in 1961 and launching the first satellite four years earlier.
Experts say Roscosmos is now a shadow of its former self and has suffered setbacks, including corruption scandals and the loss of a number of satellites and other spacecraft.
Russia’s monopoly on manned flights to the ISS is also gone, to Space X, along with millions of dollars in revenue.