War can also be felt in space: ‘The future of the International Space Station is uncertain’

The International Space Station should receive the Nobel Peace Prize, André Kuipers said in 2018 On the twentieth anniversary of the space station. Russians, Americans, Europeans, Canadians and Japanese have been working peacefully together for more than two decades.

But the war in Ukraine turns everything upside down, including space. Launches are canceled, joint projects are at risk, and the head of Russia’s space program warned yesterday that sanctions could hit the International Space Station. exposes to danger†

As far as Kuipers is concerned, the International Space Station is still eligible for the Peace Prize, but he wonders if it still has a future. “In recent years, there have been more and more cracks in cooperation with Russia, then I always saw that everything went as usual. But this is a very big crack. The Americans wanted to continue on the ISS until 2030, but now I am afraid. It is true that the end will come before That’s a little bit. 2024, if the situation doesn’t get more extreme. Space travel, just like art and sports, has always been out of political trouble, but now we have a different story. That’s a shame.”

The Twitter accounts of the astronauts on the International Space Station (two Russians, four Americans and one German) are remarkably quiet. Pictures of Kamchatka, an experiment with liquid metal, are shared. Not a word about the war.