Tuesday, November 16, 2021
After a rocket test in space
Moscow: ISS crew safety is “top priority”
Washington accuses Russia of having put the ISS and the seven astronauts on board at risk with an anti-satellite missile test. In a statement, the Russian space agency does not address the allegations directly, but asserts how important the safety of the ISS crew is.
After the US accused of having endangered the International Space Station with a missile test, Moscow has declared the safety of the ISS crew to be the “main priority” of its actions. In a published statement by the Russian space agency Roskosmos it said: “Only the joint efforts of all space powers can guarantee a coexistence in space with the highest possible security.”
The “main priority” of Russia is always the safety of the ISS crew. Roscosmos did not directly address the US allegations in the statement. Washington had accused Russia on Monday of having put the ISS in danger with an anti-satellite missile test.
Russia had “ruthlessly” carried out a “destructive test” with an anti-satellite missile and destroyed its own satellite, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. This resulted in 1500 traceable space debris and probably “hundreds of thousands” of smaller fragments.
Because of the space debris, the seven astronauts on board the ISS – among them the German Matthias Maurer – were woken up and asked to close the hatches on the ISS. They then withdrew for around two hours in two space shuttles docked at the space station. The space capsules can be used for evacuation in an emergency.
Seradata, a company specializing in satellite data, said that one such test destroyed an old Soviet satellite called Cosmos 1408. Its debris could now have threatened the ISS.
The Harvard astronomer Jonathan McDowell also believed this explanation to be possible. The space command of the US armed forces initially only stated that it knew of a “debris-generating event in space”. “We are actively working on characterizing the debris field.” The Russian space agency Roskosmos said that the debris field had moved away from the ISS. “The station is in the green zone.”