Laure Dautriche 4:47 p.m., March 3, 2022, modified at 4:47 p.m., March 3, 2022
Will the war have consequences on the yet virtuous space collaboration between Russia and the West?
Moscow is going into this field to respond to Western sanctions.
The Russian Space Agency has suspended its planned rocket launches in Kourou, Guyana.
The International Space Station, which works thanks to the collaboration between the United States and Russia in particular, to be affected by the extreme tensions between the two countries, linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
To respond to Western sanctions, the Russian Space Agency has already suspended its planned rocket launches in Kourou, Guyana.
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Russia, an essential country within the Space Station
Russia has also repatriated its 87 nationals based there.
Russia has a space base in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
It launches Soyuz rockets and it is an essential country within the International Space Station which, for 20 years, has been orbiting the Earth, at an altitude of 400 km.
There are currently two Russians, four Americans and a German on the ISS.
And even if religion and politics are prohibited on board, it is a 20-year cooperation that could end.
The next compromised missions
The space station cannot operate without Russia, which uses one of its spacecraft to regularly raise the station's altitude.
Without this maneuver, the space station sinks into the upper layers of the atmosphere to disintegrate there.
The next missions are also compromised.
Arianespace was planning up to eight Soyuz launches this year, including three from Kourou, to send satellites into space.