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The Ukraine war also has repercussions in space. Several expensive international projects are threatened with extinction. With what consequences?
Russia withdraws from international space travel – with international consequences. There are major cuts, especially at European level. One affected project is the European Mars mission “ExoMars”.
The first Mars rover should start from Europe to the red planet in autumn of this year – starting in Russia. In addition, there is a landing unit that is very important for the rover, which was developed by Russia, explains Karl Urban. He is a science journalist and has been writing about space travel for many years.
This integration work should start in March. “Meanwhile, ESA says the launch is very unlikely. She hasn’t officially canceled it yet, but many are expecting it.”
Furthermore, the German Aerospace Center ended its bilateral cooperation with Russia relatively quickly. This applies, for example, to medical experiments on the space station.
Three states in space
Meanwhile, there are one astronaut and six astronauts from the USA, Russia and Germany on the International Space Station. An international crew meets every day and has to work together.
Legend:
The astronaut crew: Pyotr Dubrov (Roskosmos), Thomas Marshburn (Nasa), Anton Shkaplerov (Roskosmos, born in Sevastopol in Crimea and commander of the space station), Raja Chari, Mark Vande Hei, Kayla Barron (all Nasa) and Matthias Maurer (ESA ).
imago images
So far there are no external restrictions, says Karl Urban. “NASA’s head of astronautics confirmed two weeks ago that they would continue to work together and communicate.”
Another new Russian crew and a US commercial mission to the space station are also scheduled to launch in March. “It will be exciting to see if these tensions will eventually reach the space station. At the moment it cannot be observed, at least not from the outside,” says the science journalist.
Propaganda or serious threat?
And yet: Recently, the Russian space agency Roskosmos threatened in a video to crash the ISS. “We know that Russia is trying to put pressure on its western partners.” In addition, there is Roskosmos boss Dmitri Rogozin, “a rumble”.
In this situation, Russia is also playing with the fact that the space station has to be raised on its orbit every few weeks. That is the task of Russia at the moment. That is why the western partners are to a certain extent dependent on Russia.
The other side is that Russia is very deeply wired into the station. «There are many Russian modules; two brand new modules that just started last year. For a few years now, Russia has semi-officially stated the goal of decoupling its own modules.” But that’s not easy, according to Urban.
This is how American solar cells would regulate the energy supply to this day. Russia needs its own replacement. “In this respect, Russia has little interest in letting the station break down and separating its own share.”
Retreat as a political signal
In the past, space travel was able to build geopolitical bridges, especially during the Cold War. Even the annexation of Crimea did not change the close cooperation in space. According to space expert Urban, Russia’s withdrawal is dramatic.
The annexation of Crimea may not have played a major role because the American astronauts had to start in Russian spacecraft. Today the Americans have their own spaceships again. “The current observation is an acceleration of a development that has been observed in recent years: that Western countries and Russia are pursuing their own projects.”