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Sanctions against Russia also have effects in space

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The International Space Station (ISS) photographed on October 4, 2018. (Illustration).

REUTERS - HANDOUT

By: Anne Verdaguer Follow

4 mins

Sanctions against Russia have another major impact, in the space domain.

Russia has been a partner of choice for Westerners since the end of the Cold War.

But for the past week, this hitherto cordial cooperation has been called into question on both sides.

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For the past few days, there have been successive announcements that increasingly isolate Russia in space and also penalize Western companies that operate with Moscow.

The latest announcement is from London-based satellite operator OneWeb, which is suspending launches from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome.

A

launcher operated by OneWeb and Arianespace was to launch this Saturday from Baikonur with 36 satellites on board.

The Russian agency Roscosmos has issued an ultimatum to Great Britain to withdraw its stake in the OneWeb company.

The British government is not selling its share, London replied.

Moscow also demanded legal guarantees that OneWeb would not use these satellites for military purposes. 

Russia, which also announced last week to suspend its space launches from the Kourou base in Guyana, its technical staff, 87 people in all, are already on their way back.

Russia has also announced that it will stop supplying rocket engines to the United States.

The director of the Russian space agency commented on this decision as follows: “ 

”.

Russia has delivered a total of 122 RD-180 rocket engines to the United States since the 1990s, 98 of which have powered

launch vehicles .

But the stocks are already sufficient, they say on the spot. 

The Russian space agency will also stop maintaining the 24 engines already delivered.

Russia will now focus on the development of dual-use spacecraft, understand for civilian use but also for military use.

What are the consequences for international space programs?

First subject of concern: the International Space Station where four Americans, two Russians and a German currently live together.

Last week, Moscow accused the United States of wanting to "

" this cooperation.

The director of the Russian space agency went so far as to mention the threat that the 500-ton spacecraft would crash into India or China.

Since then, Russia has said it is withdrawing from bilateral joint science programs on the ISS.

On the European side, the European Space Agency declared that it “

” of the Russian announcements and that it was looking for replacement solutions on the Kourou base.

Three shots were planned this year with

: two for the European navigation constellation Galileo, another for the French spy satellite CSO-3.

And the real difficulty could well lie there: 

is not yet operational.

Its first flight is expected next December.

light launcher

was also scheduled to launch in May for its maiden flight, but it can only launch small payloads.

had all the characteristics to serve as a plan B in the event of a problem, not anymore.

The Arianespace company could see its customers turn to the competition.

Another downside for the ExoMars 2022 mission

A mission in which the Russians are heavily involved since they provide the

launcher which was to leave next fall on Mars to land a 300 kg rover on the surface of the red planet using a descent module also of Russian design. 

It is the most ambitious European mission of the year.

A project that dates back twenty years and has already had to be postponed twice.

The window of opportunity to go to Mars only comes up every two years.

The mission is today strongly compromised wrote the European Space Agency, without giving details on the future of the mission.

In other economic news, oil prices fell back after surging to record lows 

The barrel of Brent rose to $119.84 at the open in London, brushing the threshold of $120 which has not been reached since 2012. It closed down 2.18% at 110.46 dollars.

The other raw materials, of which Russia is a major producer, remain in an upward spiral.

Aluminum, coal hit new highs yesterday, while wheat hit 14-year highs. 

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