Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, issued a warning yesterday (12 March) that Western sanctions against Russia could cause the International Space Station (ISS) to crash.
He then demanded for the lifting of “illegal sanctions against our companies”.
Rogozin said that the sanctions could disrupt Russian spacecraft operations that service the ISS, which could affect the 500-tonne space station to “fall down into the sea or onto land”, according to his Telegram post.
The Russian part of the space station helps the ISS to correct its orbit, and needs to be corrected 11 times a year on average, to avoid space debris.
Rogozin then described the countries who imposed sanctions on them as “crazy”, warning the countries led by the “dogs of war” to think about the price of the sanctions against Roscosmos.
The US’ NASA said on 1 March that they are finding a way to keep the ISS in orbit without the help of Russia, with supplies and space crew being sent to the Russian part of the ISS via the Soyuz spacecraft.
Roscosmos has also appealed to NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency to lift the sanctions which they described as “illegal”.
Rogozin also added that Moscow will not be supplying engines for the US’ Antares and Atlas rockets, writing: “let them soar into space on their broomsticks”.
Images source: @rogozin on Twitter and NASA