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NASA on Thursday issued a rare condemnation of the Russian space agency, its key partner on the International Space Station, after cosmonauts celebrated Russia’s conquest of a region in eastern Ukraine.
In a statement, the US space agency said it “strongly condemns supporting the use of the International Space Station for political purposes [the] war against Ukraine, which is fundamentally inconsistent with the station’s primary function among the 15 international participating countries to advance science and develop technology for peaceful purposes.”
On Monday, the Russian space agency released photos of its three cosmonauts posing with the flags of the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic – self-proclaimed republics in breakaway regions of Ukraine recognized as independent states only by Russia and Syria – and said the capture of the Region is “a day of liberation to be celebrated both on earth and in space.”
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, NASA has gone to great lengths to try to maintain the partnership on the space station that has lasted for more than 20 years. The space agency has highlighted the bond between the astronauts and cosmonauts who live side by side in orbit and promised the partnership will continue.
Earlier this year Kathy Lueders, NASA’s deputy administrator for space operations, said that despite the war and tensions on the ground, NASA and its Russian counterparts “are still speaking to each other. We still train together. We still work together. Of course we understand the global situation and where it is, but as a united team these teams work together.”
She added: “Obviously we must continue to monitor the situation. … We have operated in situations like this before and both sides have always acted very professionally and understand the importance of this fantastic mission and the continuation of peaceful relations between the two countries in space.”
Last year, after Russia blew up a dead satellite that was scattering debris and threatening the station, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson harshly condemned the Russian military, calling it “reckless and dangerous.”
Despite this, he had gone out of his way to highlight the space station as a peaceful sanctuary and to claim that the war hadn’t called into question the partnership.
“The cosmonauts and the astronauts get along as usual,” he told CNBC in March.