The human fields - such as science, sports and the arts - have always been the space that is not narrowed by political differences and conflicts of states, their presidents and leaders.

Despite the US and European sanctions imposed on Russia since the events in Ukraine and Moscow's imposition of its control over the Crimean island;

European-Russian-American cooperation in the International Space Station program has not stopped.

But this scientific harmony seems to be short-lived and has become discord and strife as a result of the US sanctions imposed on Russia in general and the space judiciary in particular.

Dmitry Rogozin, director of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, threatened - at a hearing in the Russian parliament on Monday, June 7 - to withdraw from the International Space Station and build a Russian one, according to news reports from NBC News. (NBC News).

Dmitry Rogozin threatened to withdraw if the sanctions continued (Reuters)

As a Live Science report pointed out;

"If the sanctions continue and are not lifted in the near future, then Russia's exit from the International Space Station will become the responsibility of the American partners," Rogozin said in angry statements.

"Either we work together, in which case the sanctions must be lifted immediately, or we don't work together, in which case we will launch our own station," he added.

It is worth noting that Russia will launch a new docking platform for the International Space Station this summer. Will this platform be the nucleus of an independent Russian space station, whether connected to or separate from the International Space Station?

In 2011, the Soyuz spacecraft became the only way to transport astronauts to the International Station (Reuters)

Electronic chips and Russian Soyuz

Rogozin said - according to Reuters - that Russia is unable to launch some satellites;

Because US sanctions prevent the import of some of the microchips needed for the Russian program.

In addition to the global shortages associated with factory closures caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

"We have a large number of missiles, but we don't have anything to launch them with. We have a spacecraft that is almost complete, but it is missing one set of chips that we have no way to buy because of the sanctions."

After the NASA (NASA) fleet of space shuttles was discontinued in 2011;

The Soyuz spacecraft is the only way to transport astronauts to the International Station.

In 2014, Rogozin famously said that NASA should use trampolines instead of Russian Soyuz vehicles to transport astronauts to the International Space Station.

These statements came in the wake of the Ukrainian events and Russia's imposition of its control over Crimea, at which time the United States of America and some European countries imposed sanctions on Russian officials, including Rogozin himself.

Sanctions and the lack of official information about the future of the International Space Station impede space cooperation between Russia and America (Reuters)

new economic sanctions

Recently, the United States imposed a new wave of sanctions on Russia after what American officials described as Russian cyberattacks and interference in the American elections, an allegation Russia denied.

Last December, the administration of former US President Donald Trump announced the existence of close links between the Central Research Institute of Machine Building, the Missile and Space Center and the Russian military forces;

This means that US companies must obtain a license before selling any components or equipment to them.

The US Department of Commerce under Trump had tightened restrictions on dozens of Russian and Chinese entities.

Tensions between Russia and America were renewed when new US President Joe Biden called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a murderer amid more sanctions against Russia.

Soyuz spacecraft connected to Russia's Mir station (NASA)

Collaboration and tension

On June 4, Rogozin made a acquaintance phone call with the new NASA Director Bill Nelson, and on the same day, NASA described - in a statement by Bill Nelson - the conversation as "a positive discussion about the continuation of cooperation between NASA and the Russian Space Agency, and the statement said that NASA We are committed to continuing this highly successful partnership on the International Space Station."

However, the Russian Space Agency said - in a statement - that the sanctions and the lack of official information about the future of the International Space Station fundamentally impede any cooperation between Russia and the United States in the space field, a cooperation that extends until the mission of the Apollo-Soyuz experiment project in 1975. The International Space Station agreement is supposed to expire in 2024, but the other partners are negotiating to extend the agreement until 2028.

Russia's participation was absolutely essential to its track record in the creation and operation of the NASA Mir space station.

Long history of cooperation

Despite the long history of hostility between the United States of America and Russia,

The greatest credit for human evolution in the conquest of space is due to the close cooperation between them.

This cooperation has been demonstrated in the ISS program since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s when the station agreement was modified to allow Russian participation.

One reason for this adjustment was the assimilation of Russian aerospace engineers after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

But the Russian participation was absolutely necessary for its track record in the establishment and operation of the Mir space station in the era of the Soviet Union, and this station was necessary to equip and train American astronauts for long space missions on the International Space Station that had not seen the light at that time .

When Russia was invited to participate in the International Space Station project, Europe, Japan and Canada were working on another NASA-led project called Freedom space station, but Freedom did not see the light of complex problems related to financing and policies during the preparation and development stage.