Ukraine war fallout: Is International Space Station safe? NASA responds to Russian ‘threat'
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has placed a question mark over the future of the International Space Station, long a symbol of post Cold War cooperation, where astronauts and cosmonauts proudly live and work side-by-side. The outpost was the subject of a menacing Twitter thread by Russian space agency head Dmitry Rogozin, who warned Thursday that US sanctions could "destroy our cooperation" and said the research platform would plummet to the Earth without his nation's help.
Experts view such threats as inflated political rhetoric, given the two sides' reliance on one another for the safety of their personnel. But it could hasten a long expected divorce in their fragile marriage.
"Nobody wants to put the lives of astronauts and cosmonauts in danger by political maneuvering," John Logsdon, a professor and space analyst at George Washington University, told AFP.
"It was a very conscious decision when Russia was brought into the station partnership in 1994 to make the station interdependent," he added -- a decision taken at the time with cost and speed concerns in mind.
The ISS, a collaboration among the US, Canada, Japan, the European Space Agency and Russia, is split into two sections: the US Orbital Segment, and the Russian Orbital Segment.
At present, the ISS depends on a Russian propulsion system to maintain its orbit, some 250 miles (400 kilometers) above sea level, with the US segment responsible for electricity and life support systems.
Rogozin referenced this co-dependence in a series of hostile tweets posted shortly after US President Joe Biden announced sanctions aimed at Russia's aerospace industry.
"If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from uncontrolled deorbiting and falling on US or European
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