This trip takes place in the midst of strong tensions over Ukraine between Russia and Western countries, led by the United States, which have called into question several projects in the field of space cooperation.
In early March, Roscosmos posted a video joking about the possibility of the American staying on the ISS instead of returning to Earth aboard a Soyuz rocket.
Given the concern of the Americans, the Russian agency had to assure them that the astronaut would be on the trip.
Mark Vande Hei holds the record for consecutive days in space by an American astronaut, with 355 days.
In this context of tensions, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitri Rogozin, who multiplies nationalist statements on social networks, stated in mid-March that the operation of Russian spacecraft supplying the ISS will be disrupted by Western sanctions against Russia for the operation in Ukraine.
According to him, this could cause the “splashdown or landing of the ISS, which weighs 500 tons.”
Space cooperation between Russia and Western countries was one of the few areas that had not suffered too much from the sanctions decreed against Moscow after the 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.
But in recent weeks, several cooperation projects have been affected by the crisis in Ukraine.
The European Space Agency (ESA) announced in mid-March the suspension of the Russian-European Exo-Mars mission and the search for alternatives to carry out four other missions.
Source: Ambito
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