This is a rare sign of cooperation between Moscow and Washington.
In the midst of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts arrived on Wednesday September 21 in the International Space Station (ISS) after taking off from Russia.
The Soyuz rocket with the crew on board took off at the scheduled time, 1:54 p.m. GMT, tearing in a trail of fire the darkened sky of the Kazakh steppe, on the Russian cosmodrome of Baikonur.
The Soyuz MS-22 crew ship lifted off at 9:54am ET today carrying a NASA astronaut and two Roscosmos cosmonauts to join the crew on the space station for a six-month mission.
Docking coverage begins on NASA TV at 12:15pm ET.
More.. https://t.co/v2ZhAMOx9O pic.twitter.com/yZwMrqKPEo
— International Space Station (@Space_Station) September 21, 2022
The spacecraft, with American Frank Rubio of NASA and Russians Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Peteline of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, docked with the ISS about three hours later, the US space agency said in a statement.
This Russian-American mission comes at a time when relations are at their lowest between Westerners and Russia, which on February 24 launched its troops to attack Ukraine.
In a major escalation of the conflict, President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered a partial mobilization of the population while threatening to use nuclear weapons.
Frank Rubio is the first American astronaut to go to the ISS aboard a Russian rocket since the beginning of the entry of troops from Moscow into Ukraine.
The crew is to spend six months aboard the orbital laboratory, where they reunited with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemiev, Denis Matveïev and Sergei Korsakov, American astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren and Jessica Watkins, as well as Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.
The result of a collaboration between the United States, Canada, Japan, the European Space Agency and Russia, the ISS is divided into two segments: one American and one Russian.
The ISS currently depends on a Russian propulsion system to maintain its orbit, some 400 kilometers above sea level, while the American segment handles electricity and life support systems.
Russia wants to leave the ISS after 2024
After Wednesday's flight, Anna Kikina, Russia's only female cosmonaut in active service, is due to travel to the orbital laboratory for the first time in early October aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from the American company SpaceX, and its Crew Dragon capsule. .
She will be the fifth professional Russian female cosmonaut to go into space, and the first Russian to fly aboard a ship from billionaire Elon Musk's firm.
Space tensions rose after Washington announced sanctions against Russia's aerospace industry, prompting warnings from the former Russian space official and staunch supporter of the intervention in Ukraine, Dmitry Rogozin.
Recently appointed, Dmitry Rogozin's successor, Yuri Borissov, later confirmed Russia's decision to leave the ISS after 2024 in favor of creating its own orbital station.
He has not yet set a specific date.
The US space agency called the move an "unfortunate development" that will hamper scientific work on the ISS.
Industry experts say building a new orbital station could take Moscow more than a decade and the Russian space industry, which has been the country's pride since the days of the USSR, may not flourish. under heavy penalties.
The ISS was launched in 1998 at a time of hope for cooperation between the United States and Russia.
During the Soviet era, the space program was flourishing, boasting major successes – the first man in space in 1961, Yuri Gagarin, and the launch of the first satellite four years earlier, Sputnik.
Roscosmos, on the other hand, has suffered a series of embarrassing setbacks in recent years, from corruption scandals to the loss of several satellites and other spacecraft.
Russia also lost its years-long monopoly on human spaceflight to the ISS to SpaceX, representing a multi-million dollar shortfall in revenue.
With AFP
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