“The crew of Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, as well as NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, have returned to Earth,” the Russian space agency Roscosmos said in a statement. Footage transmitted from the landing site in Kazakhstan showed the Soyuz landing unit landing at the expected time of 11:28 GMT in bright conditions before the crew got out of the vehicle that had been launched at its side. “Tasty!” said Shkaplerov, the first man to leave the descent as he sat down to drink a cup of tea provided by the recovery staff. NASA’s Mark Vande Hei got out of the vehicle last, setting a new record for the longest space flight by a NASA astronaut, clocking 355 days on the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei after landing the Soyuz MS-19 space capsule. (Bill Ingalls / NASA / AFP) The cosmonaut Dubrov, with whom he left Baikonur in April last year, now holds the record for the largest Russian mission to the ISS, although four astronauts made longer stops at the world’s most inactive Mir space station, which was the first in the world. permanently inhabited orbital laboratory. Shkaplerov completed a typical six-month mission.
US-Russia relations are on the rise
Relations between Moscow and Washington have been strained since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine last month, killing thousands and forcing 4 million people to flee the country. The period was one of the few areas of cooperation between Russia and the West that was not touched by the consequences of the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, but even here tensions are rising. The ISS, a partnership between the United States, Canada, Japan, the European Space Agency and Russia, is expected to be completed over the next decade. Last month, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin, an ardent supporter of what Moscow called a “special military operation” in Ukraine, suggested that Western sanctions targeting Russia in response had put the orbital laboratory in jeopardy. “If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from uncontrolled expulsion and falling on American or European soil?” Rogozin wrote in a tweet last month – noting that the station does not fly over much of Russia. The ISS is currently dependent on a Russian propulsion system to maintain its orbit, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above sea level, with the US Division responsible for electricity and its support systems. life – interdependencies that have existed in the project since its inception in the 1990s. The touch of the Soyuz MS-19 space capsule, Kazakhstan, March 30, 2022. (Irina Spektor / Russian Roscomos Space Agency / AFP)
Military opposition
ISS astronauts and cosmonauts have traditionally distanced themselves from politics, stressing the need to work together to advance humanity’s goals in space. But at least two spacecraft heavyweights, American astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian Gennady Pantalka, responded to the invasion with criticism. Kelly, who held the NASA space flight record before being overthrown by Vande Hei earlier this month, said he had returned a medal awarded to him by the Russian government in 2011. “Please give (the medal) to Russian mothers whose sons were killed in this unjust war,” Kelly tweeted to former Russian President and current Security Council Vice President Dmitry Medvedev earlier this month. Mr. Medvedev, I return to you the Russian medal “For Merit in Space Exploration” that you gave me. Please give it to a Russian mother whose son died in this unjust war. I will post the medal at the Russian Embassy in Washington. Good luck. pic .twitter.com / qpI1YNKps3 – Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) March 9, 2022 Kelly’s former ISS commander Gennady Padalka also appeared to criticize the invasion in an interview with private Russian media this month. “One thing is clear to me: principles, regimes, ideologies come and go, but Russia and Ukraine will always be side by side. We can not be divided into different planets,” Padalka told the Liberal newspaper. Novaya Gazeta. He expressed concern that the Russian invasion meant that Ukrainians would view current and future generations of Russians with “hatred”. Padalka, 63, holds the world record for cumulative days in space – 879 – and is a hero of the Russian Federation. NASA on Wednesday hailed its own record, Vande Hei, with service administrator Bill Nelson saying in a statement that its mission “paved the way for future human explorers on the Moon, Mars and beyond.” © Agence France-Presse
