Sanctions could cause International Space Station to crash, warns Russia

Russia on Saturday warned that Western sanctions as a result of the Ukraine invasion could result in the crashing of the International Space Station (ISS), AFP news agency reported. The head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, calling for the punitive measures to be lifted, said that the sanctions could disrupt the operation of Russian vessels servicing the ISS. As a result, the Russian segment of the station -- which helps correct its orbit -- could be affected, causing the 500-tonne structure to “fall down into the sea or onto land”, he said.

“The Russian segment ensures that the station's orbit is corrected (on average 11 times a year), including to avoid space debris,” said Rogozin, who regularly expresses his support for the Russian army in Ukraine on social networks, AFP reported.

Publishing a map of the locations where the ISS could possibly come down, he pointed out that it was unlikely to be in Russia.

“But the populations of other countries, especially those led by the ‘dogs of war’, should think about the price of the sanctions against Roscosmos,” he continued, describing the countries who imposed sanctions as ‘crazy’.

The International Space Station is a modular space station in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA. The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements.

Earlier in February, when the US first announced sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine and said the Russian space programme would degrade, Russian space agency head Dimitry Rogozin had warned that the ISS could deorbit and fall if Washington failed to cooperate.

“If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from uncontrolled deorbiting and falling into the United States or Europe? There is also the option of dropping a 500-ton structure to India and China. Do you want to threaten them with such a prospect? The ISS does not fly over Russia, so all the risks are yours. Are you ready for them?” the Russian space agency chief had said in a tweet.

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• International Space Station
• Russia
• Western sanctions
• cause
• crash
• warns
• ISS