Roscosmos is submitting petitions to its International Space Station partners, requesting that sanctions against the corporation’s companies be lifted, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said on Saturday.
“State Corporation for Space Activity Roscosmos is sending written appeals to its International Space Station partners – the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Canadian Space Agency, and the European Space Agency – demanding that illegitimate sanctions against our companies be lifted,” he said on Telegram.
Despite numerous requests from Roscosmos, Rogozin claimed that the foreign partners failed to explain the reasons for and content of the sanctions.
According to the head of Roscosmos, the Russian and American parts of the ISS are linked. The Russian component is operated from the Mission Control Center in Moscow (which is under sanctions), which ensures the station’s orbit and provides backup for the US segment’s life support equipment. From 2010 until 2019, Russian manned spacecraft Soyuz MS were the only way to transfer cosmonauts and astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), while Progress MS spacecraft delivered cargo, food, and fuel. Both craft are propelled into space by Soyuz-2.1a boosters manufactured at the Progress rocket and space centre, which is also sanctioned.
“The Soyuz manned spacecraft and the Progress cargo spacecraft are currently the backup means of delivering foreign crews and cargo to the ISS and returning them to the Earth,” Rogozin said. “Thus, The Soyuz MS-19 is scheduled to land on March 30, bringing to Earth NASA’s Mark Vande Hei along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov.”
