They challenge each other in Ukraine but cooperate in space. A NASA astronaut and his two Russian colleagues have been on board the International Space Station since last September. But Russia wants to create its own station from 2024.
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Despite the war in Ukraine, space diplomacy continues 400 kilometers above our heads. A crew of Americans and Russians was supposed to return to Earth in March 2023, but the Russian spacecraft that was supposed to bring them back was seriously damaged. A replacement shuttle has just been sent by Russia. Despite diplomatic differences, the two space agencies have agreed to ask the crew to stay in space until September 2023, one year after their arrival on board the ISS.
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Space still turns out to be one of the rare subjects of cooperation between the two powers. When the American astronaut Frank Rubio finalized his training on the Baikonur base (Kazakhstan) with his fellow Russian cosmonauts last August, the invasion of Ukraine had begun eight months ago and relations between Washington and Moscow were already very sour. Seven other astronauts are currently aboard the international station. The head of the mission, who is European, therefore has as a priority to maintain the cohesion of the crew.
Can this cooperation last?
For the moment, the cooperation continues even if it is undermined by the war in Ukraine and by the sanctions against Russia which partly affect its aerospace industry. Russia has decided to leave the international space station after 2024 to create its own orbital station, without giving a date. The United States could extend until 2030, the ISS will then be decommissioned.
Space has already served as a bridge between the United States and Russia. In 1975, a ship Apollo and a Russian Soyuz spacecraft found themselves in orbit, with a historic handshake between the American astronaut Thomas Stafford and the Soviet Alexei Leonov, in full cold War.
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