Russian cosmonauts arrive at ISS dressed in colors of Ukrainian flag | Abroad

Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev and Sergei Korsakov arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) Friday evening after a journey of about three hours. They are the first cosmonauts to arrive on the ISS since the start of the war in Ukraine. They took off from the Baykonur launch site in Kazakhstan, rented by Russia, with a Soyuz launch vehicle.

Remarkably, they left in a blue suit, but once they arrived on the ISS they wore a yellow uniform. With the colors of the Ukrainian flag, people usually want to express their solidarity with the Ukrainian people. But it is not entirely clear whether the cosmonauts wanted to send the same message. In a statement they claim that there is no political message behind it. “Each crew chooses a different flight suit so that they are not all the same. It was our turn to choose a color of uniform. We had collected a lot of yellow material, so we had to use that too. That is why we wear a yellow uniform,” said Russian Oleg Artemev. Coincidence.

The host committee on the ISS consists of the Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, the German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, and the Americans Mark Vande Hei, Thomas Marshburn, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron. It’s Maurer’s birthday today/Friday and will celebrate this with the whole new crew.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting sanctions against Russia have not had a particularly noticeable operational impact on the ISS for the time being, although threats have come from Moscow. For example, the American astronaut Mark Vande Hei will indeed go home with a Soyuz and will not have to be left behind, as some have begun to fear.