Russia Tuesday’s announcement that the country will no longer participate in the International Space Station. Starting in 2024, Russia will focus on developing its own space station, capable of competing with NASA’s future lunar space station, Roscosmos CEO Yury Boriso announced.
For now, we should take this news as salt in the water because the people who run Roscosmos (Russia’s version of NASA) also tend to make big, earth-shattering announcements designed to shake up their partners. their West and signaled their allegiance to their great fascist father Vladimir Putin. Back in 2014, Russia announces withdrawal from the ISS in 2020 because, you guessed it, tension about an invasion of Ukraine. That obviously didn’t happen. Then last year, Roscosmos blamed a strange bore in the Soyuz MS-09 module on an astronaut no proof. When the current war in Ukraine was just beginning, the Director General of Roscosmos of Russia, Dmitry Rogozin, made some outspoken threats against the ISS and astronauts on board. Though thankfully, Russia’s top space official didn’t follow up. NASA also said it will abandon the ISS orbit in 2031, so it looks like the station will be derelict without Cosmonauts for a long time.
Plus, earlier this month, NASA and Roscomos cut an agreement in which astronauts can continue to ride on Soyuz capsules and astronauts will be able to fly SpaceX rockets starting in the fall this, USA Today report. This latest announcement does not appear to affect this agreement. Boriso also stated that Russia will “… adhere to all of our commitments to our partners”, which is a relief considering Russian technology makes up some of the key components. important to the function of the ISS.
Things had been cold for years between Roscosmos and NASA, but even during the height of the Cold War, the two agencies worked together toward the advancement of all humanity to survive. in space since 1975 Project Apollo-Soyuz. It can be a struggle, finding things that give humanity hope in international politics. The mix of rare optimism and childhood nostalgia makes me think the ISS is one of them. I wasn’t aware of all of that during the Cold War, but I was in its late stages and cannot overstate the level of excitement and relief. The ISS is celebrated as a concrete example of the potential of both countries.
Now, it seems, a dream that once supported life is possible finally happened to see its bleak ending, and I fear we’ll all be poorer because of it. Now we have NASA’s Moon Gate project and The Moon Orbiter is rumored to compete with Russia and China expected. Two separate projects aimed at the same goal, only now it’s more of a national effort than a joint venture for all of humanity. What can we achieve if we all work together? We won’t know now, and that is a pitifully lost future for today.
