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War in Ukraine: why has the space sector already lost so much?
Audio 12:27
Lift-off of the Soyuz VS27 launcher © CNES/ESA/Arianespace/Optique Vidéo CSG/P Piron, 2022
By: Alexandra Cagnard Follow
3 mins
You may not know it, but Ukraine is also a space country.
Since the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, this industry has come to a standstill.
The war also jeopardizes more than twenty years of cooperation in this sector between Europeans, Americans and Russians.
This is what we invite you to understand in more detail, in this episode, with Simon Rozé, journalist in the science department of RFI.
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In this episode of
Witnesses to the News,
Simon Rozé
begins by reassuring us about what is happening on board the ISS, the International Space Station.
She is currently hosting two Russians, four Americans and a German: "
Everything is going very well upstairs and they have an interest in seeing that things go well, the tensions on earth have not yet and a priori, no reason to have repercussions on board the station
”.
The boss of the Russian space agency,
Roscosmos
, however announced on Twitter that the module whose mission is to correct the altitude of the ISS could be separated from the station, but, explains Simon: "
It's much more complicate that because all the modules depend on each other.
If the Russians are in charge of the one that corrects the altitude, the Americans, they manage the one that provides electricity and without it, the Russian module could not live
”.
On the other hand, other partnerships have already suffered from the war in Ukraine.
This is the case of OneWeb, a constellation of telecommunications satellites: “
A whole batch of satellites was to take off with a Soyuz launcher from the Baikonur base in Kazakhstan
a few days ago, but
Roscosmos refused to operate this flight.
".
Ditto in Kourou, in Guyana where the Russian space agency recalled to Moscow its personnel present.
“
It's annoying, because there are three flights planned with Soyuz and we have to find a new rocket for its satellites.
It doesn't happen that way
."
The ExoMars
mission
is also hit hard by the war in Ukraine.
It was to send the first European rover to the Red Planet in September 2022.
"
In addition to the Soyuz rocket, the Russians were also in charge of the landing platform, which was to ensure the removal of the machine on Mars
".
“
The program has already blown all the budgets because of the accumulated delays.
Finding another partnership would be very expensive and time-consuming
”.
Ukraine is also a major country in the space sector: “
Not everything has been destroyed
, explains Simon Rozé,
but everything is at a standstill.
The factories notably manufacture second stages for Vega, which is the European light launcher.
Engines are also made there.
There, of course, there are many uncertainties
”.
And Simon concludes: “
The space sector is a sector where there must be trust between the partners because these are very long projects which involve a lot of people, a lot of money.
And even if everything is settled today, this confidence, it will have to be rebuilt, it will take time
”.
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