international space cooperation in jeopardy

taketonews

The war unleashed by Vladimir Putin in Ukraine and the sanctions taken in retaliation by Western countries could jeopardize cooperation in space. Russia is a leading player in space and actively participates in many international projects such as the International Space Station (ISS) or the European “ExoMars” mission.

Roscomos leaves French Guiana

Josef Aschbacher, director general of the European Space Agency (ESA), tried to keep space away from low earthly considerations. In a message posted on February 25, he said, “ Despite the current conflict, civil space cooperation remains a bridge. ESA continues to work on all its programmes, including the ISS and ExoMars launch campaign, to deliver on commitments made with Member States and partners “.

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The European Union facing the challenges of its space sovereignty

One of these partners, Russia of course, did not hear it that way. The next day, the Russian space agency, Roscomos, currently the victim of a denial of service cyberattack, took to Twitter to announce, ” Roscosmos suspends cooperation with European partners in organizing space launches from the Kourou cosmodrome and withdraws its personnel, including the consolidated launch crew, from French Guiana “.

In concrete terms, the 87 Russian citizens are going to or have left Guyana. A problematic situation for Arianespace, which has scheduled three Soyuz rocket launches in 2022 at Kourou. The Russian rocket was to put two satellites of Galileo, the European GPS, into orbit on April 6.

The same day Thierry Breton, European Space Commissioner, insured ” that this decision has no consequences on the continuity and quality of the Galileo and Copernicus services [programme européen de surveillance sur l’état de la Terre] “. He took the opportunity to recall the upcoming autonomy of Europe in terms of launcher with the arrival of Ariane 6 and Vega C.

ExoMars is the other European project where Russia is closely associated. This is the sending of a rover, baptized Rosalind Franklin on Mars. It is due to take off in October from Baikonur, in Kazakhstan, a cosmodrome inherited from the USSR and rented by Russia. The Proton rocket which must transport the machine is also Russian, as well as its descent and landing module. According to FranceInfoESA is expected to discuss the future of these various programs during a crisis meeting on Monday 28 February.

Is the existence of the ISS threatened by Russia-West tensions?

Beyond Europe, it is the best example of international cooperation, the ISS, which is threatened. The Biden administration assumed on February 24 that it would take a series of sanctions to hinder Russia’s technological progress in the future. A decision little appreciated by the provocative Dmitri Rogozin, director of Rocosmos.

In a series of acerbic tweets, he pointed out that if US sanctions were going to hamper Russian aerospace, the ISS would be the first victim. The Russian Progress cargo ship takes care of correcting the station’s altitude and movements to avoid debris or being too low.

Dmitry Rogozin asks the question, If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from uncontrolled deorbit and fall to the United States or Europe? “. The Russian leader went so far as to suggest that the American authorities check whether the officials who imposed sanctions were not victims of Alzheimer’s, ” Just in case. To prevent your sanctions from falling on your head. And not just figuratively “.

A former senior NASA official, Wayne Hale, confirmed to The Verge the script, but he feels it will take ” probably several years “, enough to find a solution. Nevertheless, a break between Rocosmos and the other ISS agencies, NASA, ESA, Japan, Canada, would pose many other difficulties.

From 2011 to May 2020, Soyuz was the only rocket to send astronauts to the ISS. When in 2014 the Americans took sanctions against Russia, for the invasion of Crimea, Dmitri Rogozin, already then vice-president of the Russian government in charge of defense and the space industry, had offered them to go to the ISS by trampoline.

A term that Elon Musk did not fail to use when Space X sent astronauts to the ISS for the first time in May 2020. Soyuz, however, continues to bring or bring back astronauts and supplies to the station. Three of them must fly away on March 18 and three others will return on March 30 as well. Russia has installed many ISS modules, including the last two, in 2021.

Russia has decided to exclude NASA from a joint Venus exploration program, Venera-D. For the ISS, Westerners and Russians seem doomed to cooperate. For now, according to The Verge this is the position taken by all parties. It is to be hoped that in this period of extreme tension, the ISS, in the absence of space, remains far from terrestrial contingencies. There are currently seven astronauts on the station, four Americans, two Russians and a German.



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