NASA condemns Russia's use of the ISS to support its war against Ukraine, as the station's principal objective is to enhance research and technology for peaceful purposes.
NASA and Russian Space Agency Argues Over ISS
It seems that a dispute over the usage of the International Space Station has broken out between NASA and the Russian space agency.
The chairman of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said that the Russian space agency would utilize its portion of the ISS to carry out any tasks it "considers essential and valuable."
The most recent incident in a spat between the two space agencies started when Russian astronauts seemed to be using flags in anti-Ukraine propaganda while posing for pictures.
Asserting that the space station is meant to be politically impartial, NASA has criticized the images. Despite tensions on the ground, the US space agency's announcement was very unusual and went against its previous practice of primarily aiming to avoid any political impact on the floating lab.
According to a spokesperson for NASA, Russia's use of the International Space Station to support its war against Ukraine is strongly condemned by the space agency. This starkly contrasts the station's primary purpose, which is to advance science and technology for peaceful purposes among the 15 participating nations.
Mr. Rogozin responded by saying that Roscosmos will carry out anything that we deemed essential and beneficial in the Russian part. Rogozin additionally said he counseled Western allies to lift their foolish sanctions.
Roscosmos' official Telegram channel had released the photographs that sparked the most recent argument earlier in the week. They featured cosmonauts on the Russian section of the space station, waving the flags of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics and celebrating Russian military triumphs in Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Rogozin has been one of the most vocal high-profile Russian officials. He has fought with people like Elon Musk and regularly called for sanctions to be lifted, using his official accounts to criticize US policies.
However, cooperation on the space station has largely proceeded as anticipated despite their public pronouncements. There were concerns that NASA astronauts may not be allowed to return to Earth aboard Russian spacecraft, for example, but these arrangements have mostly gone on as usual.
Russian Astronauts in ISS Broadcasted Anti-Ukrainian Propaganda
According to an article by Space.com on July 6, Russia's state space agency Roscosmos posted two pictures of its cosmonauts flying the flags of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic, two rebel regions in eastern Ukraine that get support from Russia.
The photographs are being referred to as clear propaganda, a regrettable abuse of the ISS as a political bargaining chip after Russia invades Ukraine and the ensuing economic sanctions by the West.
On July 4, the Roscosmos account on the social media platform Telegram posted propaganda pictures shot inside the ISS. The images show the tricolor flags of Luhansk and Donetsk as cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev, and Sergey Korsakov are all smiling. In May 2022, Artemyev was named ISS commander.
The statement with the two pictures makes it clear that certain people at Roscosmos are still trying to exploit the International Space Station to spread pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian propaganda. According to a Roscosmos message on Telegram, people of the Luhansk region's occupied districts had been anticipating this day for eight years. They are sure that July 3 will forever go down in American history.
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