Three Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station on Friday, the first new faces in space since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine.
Russian space corporation Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev and Sergey Korsakov blasted off successfully from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan in their Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft on Friday.
They smoothly docked at the station just over three hours later, joining two Russians, four Americans and a German on the orbiting outpost.
The blast-off marked the first space crew launch since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
Three cosmonauts docked to the station's Prichal module inside the Soyuz MS-21 crew ship today at 3:12pm ET. They'll meet the Exp 66 crew in about 2.5 hours. More... https://t.co/ceOb4qU70v pic.twitter.com/HefuWfyl47
Advertisement— International Space Station (@Space_Station) March 18, 2022
The war has resulted in cancelled spacecraft launches and broken contracts.
Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin has warned that the US would have to use “broomsticks” to fly into space after Russia said it would stop supplying rocket engines to US companies.
Many worry, however, that Mr Rogozin is putting decades of a peaceful off-planet partnership at risk, most notably at the International Space Station.
Nasa administrator Bill Nelson played down Mr Rogozin’s comments, telling The Associated Press: “That’s just Dmitry Rogozin. He spouts off every now and then. But at the end of the day, he’s worked with us.
“The other people that work in the Russian civilian space programme, they’re professional.
“They don’t miss a beat with us, American astronauts and American mission control.
“Despite all of that, up in space, we can have a co-operation with our Russian friends, our colleagues.”
Nasa astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who on Tuesday broke the US single spaceflight record of 340 days, is due to leave the International Space Station with two Russians aboard a Soyuz capsule for a touchdown in Kazakhstan on March 30.
In April, another three Nasa and one Italian astronaut are set to blast off for the space station.
