NASA reiterated Monday that collaboration between the United States and Russia on the International Space Station (ISS) continues normally despite the extreme tension linked to the war in Ukraine, and stated that an American astronaut would return to Earth as planned at the end of the month on board a Russian ship.
NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, 55, is preparing to return from the Space Station (ISS) on a Soyuz spacecraft on March 30, after 355 days in space, a new record for an American. The ship will land in Kazakhstan and will also bring back Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov.
“I can safely tell you that Mark will return aboard this Soyuz,” Joel Montalbano, the station's program director for NASA, said Monday. “Our Russian colleagues have confirmed that they are ready to bring back the entire crew.”
Despite tension between Washington and Moscow, the two countries will continue to work together to ensure the operation of the ISS.
“Nothing has changed in the last three weeks,” said Joel Montalbano. “The control centers continue to operate smoothly.”
This weekend, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, declared that Western sanctions against Russia could disrupt the operation of Russian spacecraft and cause the ISS to fall.
The thrusters of Russian ships moored to the station are used to correct the orbit of the space structure. A procedure that is performed about ten times a year to keep it at the right altitude, or to avoid space debris in its path.
Americans alone do not have this ability, confirmed Joel Montalbano. “The Space Station was designed on the principle of interdependence (...) it is not a process in which one group can separate from the other.”
“At present, there is no indication that our Russian partners want to do things differently. Therefore, we plan to continue operations as we do today,” he said.
He also confirmed that the exchange scheduled for autumn (a Russian cosmonaut sent to the ISS with a SpaceX spacecraft and a NASA astronaut with a Soyuz) is still on the table.
The ISS is currently home to two Russians, four Americans and one German.
“Are you aware of what is happening on Earth? Absolutely,” said Montalbano. But the astronauts are “professionals” and “there is no tension between the crew. They've been trained to do a job and they're up there doing it.”
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