MOSCOW — Western
sanctions against Russia could cause the
International Space Station (ISS) to
crash, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos warned Saturday, calling for
the punitive measures to be lifted.
اضافة اعلان
According to Dmitry Rogozin, the sanctions,
some of which predate Moscow's
invasion of Ukraine, could disrupt the operation
of Russian spacecraft servicing the ISS.
As a result, the Russian segment of the
station — which helps correct its orbit — could be affected, causing the
500-tonne structure to "fall down into the sea or onto land", the
Roscosmos chief wrote on Telegram.
"The Russian segment ensures that the
station's orbit is corrected (on average 11 times a year), including to avoid
space debris", said Rogozin, who regularly expresses his support for the
Russian army in Ukraine on social networks.
Publishing a map of the locations where the
ISS could possibly come down, he pointed out that it was unlikely to be in
Russia.
"But the populations of other
countries, especially those led by the 'dogs of war', should think about the
price of the sanctions against Roscosmos", he continued, describing the
countries who imposed sanctions as "crazy".
Rogozin similarly raised the threat of the
space station falling to earth last month while blasting Western sanctions on
Twitter.
On March 1,
NASA said it was trying to find
a solution to keep the ISS in orbit without Russia's help.
Crews and supplies are transported to the
Russian segment by Soyuz spacecraft.
But Rogozin said the launcher used for
take-off had been "under US sanctions since 2021 and under
EU and Canadian
sanctions since 2022".
Roscosmos said it had appealed to NASA, the
Canadian Space Agency, and the European Space Agency, "demanding the
lifting of illegal sanctions against our companies".
Space is one of the last remaining areas
where the US and Russia continue to cooperate.
At the beginning of March, Roscosmos
announced its intention to prioritize the construction of military satellites
as
Russia finds itself increasingly isolated as a result of the war in Ukraine.
Rogozin also announced that Moscow would no
longer supply the engines for the US Atlas and Antares rockets.
"Let them soar into space on their
broomsticks," he wrote.
On March 30, US astronaut, Mark Vande Hei,
and two cosmonauts, Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, are scheduled to return
to Earth from the ISS onboard a Soyuz spacecraft.
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