Peace in space, earthly problems

The day before yesterday, Jared Isaacman, the NASA chief appointed by the Trump administration, was at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to witness the launch of the Soyuz mission bound for the International Space Station. It was the first visit by a NASA chief to the Russian launch site in eight years, which was rather surprising. On board the Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft were American astronaut Anil Menon and Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, who were set to join the ISS crew. Isaacman’s presence and his meeting with Roscosmos’s leadership come at a time when the United States and Russia are continuing to maintain one of the few remaining collaborative programmes between the two countries. The war in Ukraine has disrupted or scaled back many scientific and technological ties, but the International Space Station continues to operate through collaboration with the European Space Agency, Japan and Canada.

Yesterday, the Director General of Roscosmos, Dmitry Bakanov, also announced that joint operations at the space station “will continue until 2030”, even though, until a few months ago, that year had been designated as the year of deorbiting. Of course, the programme remains in place partly because the structure was designed from the outset as an integrated system, and certain essential elements of its operations depend on the expertise and components supplied by the various partners. But the underlying problem remains one of trust: how can cooperation continue with a country with which there is a political standoff and an open military confrontation? Whilst for the partner countries, unilaterally withdrawing from the Space Station would mean bringing to an end a scientific and industrial programme built up over more than twenty years, no one is particularly keen to invest much in it any longer; yet, in the meantime, Washington and Moscow seem to be carrying on as if nothing were amiss. Meanwhile, suspicions are growing that, in the militarisation of space, Russia is drawing ever closer to China. The long-running crisis surrounding the International Space Station has only just begun.