While war is raging in Ukraine, Americans and Russians reach the space station

BAIKONUR (KAZAKHSTAN) – A US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts have safely arrived on the International Space Station (ISS), NASA said Wednesday, after launching in a rare instance of cooperation between Moscow and Washington on a Russian-operated flight were.

Russia’s space agency Roscosmos and NASA both circulated live footage of the launch from Kazakhstan, and commentators who spoke about the feed said it was stable and the crew were feeling “good.”

NASA’s Frank Rubio and Russians Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin formed the crew that launched at 1354 GMT from the Russia-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The three will spend six months on the ISS along with three other Russian cosmonauts, three other US astronauts and an Italian.

Rubio is the first US astronaut to travel to the ISS on a Russian Soyuz rocket since President Vladimir Putin dispatched troops to pro-western Ukraine on February 24.

In response, Western capitals, including Washington, have hit Moscow with unprecedented sanctions and bilateral ties have plummeted to new lows.

Space is one of the last remaining areas of cooperation between the two countries.

Russia’s only active cosmonaut Anna Kikina is expected to travel to the orbital station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon in early October.

She will become only the fifth professional cosmonaut from Russia or the Soviet Union to fly into space, and the first Russian to fly aboard a spacecraft operated by billionaire Elon Musk’s company SpaceX.

Russian cosmonauts and Western astronauts have tried to avoid the conflict raging on Earth, especially when in orbit together.

A collaboration between the United States, Canada, Japan, the European Space Agency and Russia, the ISS is divided into two sections: the US orbital segment and the Russian orbital segment.

– Russia leaves the ISS –

Currently, the ISS depends on a Russian propulsion system to maintain its orbit about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above sea level, with the US segment responsible for electricity and life support systems.

Space tensions have been rising since Washington announced sanctions on Moscow’s aerospace industry – prompting warnings from Russia’s former space chief Dmitry Rogozin, an ardent supporter of the Ukraine war.

Rogozin’s recently appointed successor, Yuri Borissov, later confirmed Russia’s long-discussed move to exit the ISS after 2024 to create its own orbital station.

The US space agency Nasa called the decision an “unfortunate development” that would hinder scientific work on the ISS.

Space analysts say building a new orbital station could take more than a decade, and Russia’s space industry – a point of national pride – would be unable to thrive under heavy sanctions.

The ISS was launched in 1998 at a time of hope for cooperation between the US and Russia following their Cold War space race competition.

During this time, the Soviet space program was booming. It boasted a number of achievements, including sending the first human into space in 1961 and launching the first satellite four years earlier.

Experts say Roscosmos is now a shadow of its former self and has suffered a series of setbacks in recent years, including corruption scandals and the loss of a number of satellites and other spacecraft.

Russia’s years-long monopoly on manned flights to the ISS has also gone to SpaceX, along with millions of dollars in revenue.