At the moment, there are probably only scenes of Russian-American jubilation far away from Earth: in the midst of severe tensions because of the Ukraine war, three cosmonauts have arrived at the ISS. Your suits make people talk.
Russians in the colors of Ukraine: The astronauts Sergei Korsakov, Oleg Artemiev and Denis Matweev dock at the International Space Station ISS and provide a topic of conversation.
(dpa) Amidst the most severe tensions between Russia and the West, an all-Russian crew at the International Space Station (ISS) has been greeted with hugs and clapping. Cosmonauts Oleg Artemiev, Denis Matveyev and Sergei Korsakov docked with their Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft at the ISS on Friday, live images from the American space agency Nasa showed.
Shortly thereafter they floated into the ISS and were greeted there by their Russian, American and German colleagues with cheers, hugs and handshakes.
Coincidence or message?
On Earth, the flight suits the cosmonauts wore also got people talking: they were yellow with some blue patches. This reminded observers of the colors of the Ukrainian flag. It was initially unclear whether there was a message associated with this.
Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev, and Sergey Korsakov just entered the International Space Station wearing blue and yellow space attire. ?? pic.twitter.com/DY8753hYvP
— Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) March 18, 2022
The three cosmonauts took off from the Russian cosmodrome Baikonur in Kazakhstan about three hours before docking. This was shown by live images from the Russian space agency Roskosmos. The rocket was seen rising into the night sky over Central Asia.
In the past, unlike this time, an American astronaut or an astronaut from the European Space Agency Esa usually flew with Soyuz launches. The American space agency Nasa has been using American spaceships to the ISS again for some time.
The sanctions imposed on Moscow for the attack on Ukraine have also weighed heavily on cooperation between the United States, the EU and Russia in space – even if America and Russia emphasize that they want to continue operating the ISS station for the time being. Roskosmos recently left the future of the ISS open after the contract expires in 2024. NASA is aiming for a term until 2030.
Russia wants to permanently close the launch site in Kourou
Russia’s space industry has already made a first decision. She wants to permanently shut down her launch site at the European spaceport in Kourou in French Guiana. “Why do we still need him?” asked the head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, on Saturday in the city of Samara. “Why do we need such an unreliable partner?” He said in the direction of the European Space Agency Esa.
Due to the sanctions imposed, Roscosmos canceled launches of its Soyuz rockets from Kourou. In 15 years of cooperation, 27 Soyuz had taken off there.
Instead of the planned 30 launches, Roskosmos will only complete about 20 launches this year because of the sanctions, Rogozin said. “But that’s no problem.” Six launches of Internet satellites for the OneWeb network from Russian spaceports and three launches of French Earth exploration satellites from Kourou were omitted.