Posted on 03/12/2022 6:03:31 AM PST by blam
Two decades of space cooperation between the U.S. and Russia could be coming to an end after the U.S. and its allies imposed crippling sanctions on the country. The Russian government announced Friday that it might abandon a U.S. astronaut set to return to Earth.
Fox News reports that the Russian Space Agency head, Dmitry Rogozin, has “threatened to leave” U.S. astronaut Mark Vande Hei aboard the International Space Station (ISS), who is scheduled to return to Earth on a Russian spacecraft by the end of the month.
JUST IN: Russia threatens to abandon ‘American Astronaut’ in spacepic.twitter.com/ybTrf8TR8e
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) March 11, 2022
“Rogozin posted a threatening video on social media casting doubt over the astronaut’s safety. He also warned that without the help from Russia to move the ISS away from space junk, the station would crash into the U.S.,” reports the Express.
Relations in space are souring as the U.S. and its Western allies hammer Russia’s economy with devastating sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. This angered Moscow so much that they threatened to deorbit the ISS last month.
Former U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly recently told ABC News that Russia’s threat to the safety of Americans on ISS is “not really based on reality.”
“We do have the ability to control the orbit of the space station independent of the Russian space agency, so I don’t really see that happening,” Kelly said.
Even if the Russians were to abandon the U.S. astronaut and ISS altogether, Elon Musk has suggested his space company SpaceX could keep the ISS from deorbiting and even shuttle astronauts and cargo to and from Earth.
Vande Hei holds the record for longest space flight (at 355 days). It remains to be seen in three weeks if the Russians will allow him to board the spacecraft bound for Kazakhstan with two Russian cosmonauts. If not, maybe Musk can send a rocket with a Dragon capsule to the ISS.
Things are so bad between the U.S. and Russia that Rogozin ordered flags of the U.S. and its allies to be removed off Russian rockets.
Let Musk do what NASA failed. Good riddance to the Russians, just make sure they don’t sabotage things when they leave.
World War IV - a distraction necessary because Democrats are facing a disastrous set of midterm elections
Take up Elon on his offer. I’d bet a supply mission could go in a couple weeks (delay primarily from NASA bureaucrats deciding what to take up), and a crew mission not long after. The propaganda win for the USA would be huge.
Keep pissing off Russia folks. Anything to defend Ukrainian corruption and Klaus Schwaub’s Global Reset.
Russia depends upon it’s collaborations with the West to keep it’s space and rocket programs afloat. Our world has gone insane and is coming apart at the seams in one short year
Musk can fix it and let Putin rot.
I’d say that’s extremely unlikely to happen.
Focus..focus..focus.
This means nothing.
Why did this all happen?
Who caused it?
When did it all start?
If any of you say anything other than Joe “pig face” Biden then you are out of your minds.
Focus. That includes Donald Trump. Keep hitting pig face with everything and anything that comes up, including attempts of starting a nuclear war with Russia.
In a cloud of space dust Elon Musk to the rescue.
Well NASA????...Oh right you are more interested in telling us about climate change than being the world’s leading manned space program you once were.
More likely they would return him to Earth and mot let him leave Russia.
Screw Russia. They’ve sucked for 100 years.
“Keep pissing off Russia folks. “
Russia has many good people, most are against corrupt Putins violent war on his neighbors.
What Putin is doing is wicked. If you don’t see this invasion as immoral and wrong you have deep soul searching to do.
This confused me. Russia ordered US flags and those of our allies to be removed from Russian rockets?
I had a girlfriend like this.
For many ,like Trump, this is perceived as the start of negotiation.
What will Biden and the nincompoops do now?
Can you imagine being a Russian cosmonaut and abandoning someone you have spent months with to their death? Despite what Putin says, there’s a chance the cosmonauts bring him back.
Everyone who thinks that Musk can do it has zero idea what it takes to prepare for a space mission. Add to that, his craft has never flown to that orbit or docked with anything let alone something occupied with people.
I certainly believe that eventually SpaceX can do the mission but it is definitely not something you throw together in a month or two. Sending astronauts to fail in space killing more than the single astronaut left behind isn’t a good option.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.