After the Russian attack on Ukraine, the US space agency NASA wants to continue “monitoring” the situation with regard to cooperation with Russia in space. “Right now our operations are running normally,” Kathy Lueders, head of NASA’s manned space program, said at a news conference on Monday. “It would be a sad day for international operations if we could not continue to work together in space.”
“Of course we will continue to monitor the situation,” said Lueders. Possible “operational flexibilities” are also being looked at. The teams from both countries are in constant contact and NASA is currently getting all the support it needs from Russia. “We don’t get any indications from our counterpart that they don’t want to continue operations,” said Lueders. “We understand that the international situation is what it is, but our team is still working together.” You work together just like you did three weeks ago.
“We have previously maintained operations under such circumstances and both sides have always behaved very professionally,” continued Lueders. “We continue to have peaceful relations between these two countries in space.”
Meanwhile, the European Space Agency (ESA) is examining the impact of the sanctions against Russia on its own cooperation with the country. Many difficult decisions are currently being made at ESA, Director General Josef Aschbacher wrote on Twitter on Monday.
The European-Russian space project “Exomars” to search for traces of life on the red planet could be particularly affected. The ESA announced that a launch this year is very unlikely due to the general environment and the sanctions. Actually, the second part of the mission should start in September with a rover on board in the direction of Mars. ESA said in general that it would fully implement its member states’ sanctions against Moscow over the war in Ukraine.
In response to EU sanctions, Russia’s space agency Roskosmos had previously announced that it would suspend cooperation on space launches in Kourou, French Guiana. On the other hand, Roscosmos had emphasized its willingness to continue cooperation with the USA in space – especially with regard to the operation of the International Space Station ISS and flights there – and warned the USA of a possibly hasty termination of this cooperation.
The German astronaut Matthias Maurer is currently working with four Americans and two Russians on the outpost of mankind. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei is scheduled to return to Earth in a Russian Soyuz capsule at the end of March. This plan will be adhered to for the time being, said NASA manager Lueders.
Despite many conflicts between Moscow and Washington, space travel has always been considered one of the few areas where cooperation between the two countries has worked. During the Cold War, however, the United States and the Soviet Union had run separate space programs and, in doing so, had also engaged in races. NASA only agreed to continue operating the ISS until 2030 at the turn of the year. Roskosmos now wanted to propose a corresponding extension to the government in Moscow.