An American and two Russians left the International Space Station together aboard a Russian spacecraft. International cooperation in space continues despite Russian-American tensions on planet Earth.
A last hug before returning to earth. American astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov said goodbye to their crewmates on the International Space Station Tuesday before boarding a Russian Soyuz spacecraft scheduled to land in Kazakhstan.
A few days ago, NASA assured that the war in Ukraine would have no impact, neither on the control centers nor on board the ISS, one of the main areas of Russian-US cooperation, and that this return of the American astronaut would be on board the Russian capsule take place as planned.
Some analysts, particularly in the US, still fear a unilateral withdrawal from Russia, which is currently handling certain cardinal functions of the station, particularly the part that serves to correct the orbit of the orbital structure. On March 1, NASA announced that it was working on solutions to keep the station in orbit without Russian help.
But for the time being, the program remains busy: On April 6th, SpaceX’s very first civil space mission will start in the direction of the ISS. Four tourists will spend 10 days there.