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Roscosmos sends letters to ISS partners demanding to lift sanctions

Dmitry Rogozin said the foreign partners didn’t explain the reasons for and the content of the sanctions, despite repeated requests by Roscosmos

MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/. Roscosmos is sending appeals to its partners in the International Space Station demanding they lift sanctions from the corporation’s companies, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said on Saturday.

"State Corporation for Space Activity Roscosmos is sending written appeals to its partners in the International Space Station - the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency - demanding they lift illegitimate sanctions from our companies," he said on Telegram.

Rogozin said the foreign partners didn’t explain the reasons for and the content of the sanctions, despite repeated requests by Roscosmos.

The head of Roscosmos said that the Russian and US segments of the ISS are interconnected. The Russian segment is controlled from the Mission Control Center near Moscow (which is under sanctions), which ensures the maintenance of the station's orbit and provides backup for running the life support systems of the US segment. From 2010 to 2019, Russian manned spacecraft Soyuz MS were the only means of sending cosmonauts and astronauts aboard the ISS, while Progress MS spacecraft deliver cargo, food and fuel. Both craft are launched by Soyuz-2.1a boosters, which are produced at the Progress rocket and space center, which is also under sanctions.

"The Soyuz manned spacecraft and the Progress cargo spacecraft are currently the backup means of delivering foreign crews and cargo to the ISS and returning them to the Earth," Rogozin said. "Thus, The Soyuz MS-19 is scheduled to land on March 30, bringing to Earth NASA’s Mark Vande Hei along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov."

The Roscosmos chief also published a map showing where the ISS could descend, saying it was compiled by US astronomers. "It shows that the destruction of the ISS poses the least danger to Russia," he said. "But the population of some other countries, including those led by the ‘dogs of war,’ should think hard about the price of the sanctions they initiated against Roscosmos, and the price of the international cooperation in space, which is being obsessively destroyed by the West. Madmen," he said.

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