Russia threatens with leaving the International Space Station

The man in charge of the Russian space agency said that they will stop working with its international partners, including NASA and the European Space Agency in the new orbital lab. The director of Roscosmos, Dimitry Rogozin revealed the agency’s intentions in social media and said they will be sending an itinerary for the termination of current projects to the kremlin.

This is one of many threats, delays and canceled projects that Roscosmos has been part of since the wave of sanctions against oligarchs linked to President Vladimir Putin. The majority of astronauts aboard the ISS return to earth onboard flights of the Russian Soyuz rocket. 

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The Crew Dragon rocket, property of billionaire Elon Musk and his company, SpaceX is also now moving crew between the International Space Station and has already made 4 flights since its inaugural trip in 2020.

The current crew of the International Space station is formed by 3 Americans (Kayla Barron, Thomas Marshburn and Raja Chari) , three Russians (Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergei Korsakov)and a German (Matthias Maurer).

Rogozin had said previously that he didn’t know who would save the ISS if Russia withdrew itself from the project. Elon Musk replied to the message with the name of his private space company, SpaceX. The ISS is a symbol of truss between the two nations after the culmination of the Cold War. 

The station is divided in two sides, with all the life support instrumentation on the american side and the propulsion instrumentation, which is what keeps the ISS from plummeting into earth on the Russian side. 

The United States has said that it would be extremely difficult for them to manage the satellite on their own if the responsibility would fall upon them. Until recently, Russia and the United States have been able to put their differences aside and were able to return Astronaut Mark Handel Hei back to earth onboard a Soyuz rocket, along with two of his Russian counterparts.