Hugs between Americans and Russians. It’s a scene that’s hard to imagine since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, it went well when three Russian cosmonauts arrived on the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, March 18.
They posed proudly alongside their new crew. The new arrivals are easily distinguished on the pictures: they wear a yellow and blue jumpsuit. A color palette strangely reminiscent of the flag of Ukraine. But according to the Russian space agency, this choice is explained by a surplus of yellow fabric in the company which is responsible for making the outfits.
Soyuz Commander Oleg Artemye, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov took off from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on a science mission that is expected to last six and a half months. They joined the current crew, which includes three NASA astronauts – Tom Marshburn, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron – and Germany’s Matthias Maurer from the European Space Agency.
Yet US-Russian collaboration in space has been tested since Russia invaded Ukraine three weeks ago. As part of US economic sanctions against the Russian government, US President Joe Biden had ordered high-tech export restrictions against Moscow which he said were designed to “to degrade” the Russian aerospace industry, including its space program.
Dmitry Rogozin, director general of Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, then lashed out in a series of Twitter posts suggesting that US sanctions could ” destroy “ the ISS teamwork and bring the ISS down to earth.
The space station was born in part as a foreign policy initiative aimed at improving US-Russian relations after the collapse of the Soviet Union and erasing the Cold War hostility that had spurred the US-Soviet space race. .