U.S. astronaut, 2 Russian cosmonauts return to Earth on shared Soyuz ride (updated)

US Aerospace

30/03/2022 09:05

(Updates with undocking)
    By Steve Gorman
    March 30 (Reuters) - A U.S. astronaut and two Russian
cosmonauts left the International Space Station (ISS) together
on a Soyuz capsule as they headed back to Earth on Wednesday,
despite heightened U.S.-Russian antagonism over the war in
Ukraine.
    The Russian Soyuz capsule carrying NASA's Mark Vande Hei and
his cosmonaut peers Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov
successfully undocked from the ISS and is set to make a
parachute landing in central Kazakhstan at 1128 GMT, according
to Russian space agency Roscosmos.
    The joint U.S.-Russian return flight from ISS is being
closely watched for signs that escalating strife between Moscow
and Washington over the Russian invasion of Ukraine have spilled
over into longtime cooperation in space between the two former
Cold War adversaries.
    Vande Hei, who at 55 is completing his second ISS mission,
will have logged a U.S. space-endurance record of 355
consecutive days in orbit, surpassing the previous 340-day
record set by astronaut Scott Kelly in 2016, according to NASA.
    The all-time record for longest single stay in space was set
by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov who spent more than 14
months aboard the Mir space station, returning to Earth in 1995.
    Dubrov, 40, who launched to the ISS with Vande Hei last
April from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, will be
completing his first spaceflight, sharing 5,680 Earth orbits and
more than 150 million miles in space with Vande Hei, NASA said.
    Shkaplerov, 50, just ending his rotation as the latest ISS
commander, is a veteran of four missions to the orbital outpost,
accumulating 708 total days in space, far exceeding Vande Hei's
523-day career tally, according to NASA. Shkaplerov began his
latest space station stint last October.
    
    SPACE RELATIONS TESTED
    Announcing U.S. economic sanctions against Russian President
Vladimir Putin's government on Feb. 24, U.S. President Joe Biden
ordered high-tech export restrictions against Russia that he
said were designed to "degrade" its aerospace industry,
including its space program. 
    Dmitry Rogozin, director-general of Roscosmos, then lashed
out in a series of Twitter posts suggesting the U.S. sanctions
could "destroy" ISS teamwork and lead to the space station
falling out of orbit.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2V1025
    The following week, state-run Russian news agency RIA
Novosti posted a video spoof depicting cosmonauts waving
farewell to Vande Hei before Russia's ISS module detaches from
the space station and flies away without him to the applause of
Russian officials at mission control, leaving the rest of the
station sinking lower in orbit.
    The clip, described by RIA Novosti as "comic," plays out to
the Russian-language love ballad "Goodbye," by Russian vocalist
Lev Leshchenko. 
    At about the same time, Rogozin announced that Russia would
stop supplying or servicing Russian-made rocket engines used by
two U.S. aerospace NASA suppliers, suggesting U.S. astronauts
could use "broomsticks" to get to orbit.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N2V60S1
    NASA, for its part, has said that U.S. and Russian ISS crew
members were well aware of events on Earth but are working
professionally together without tension.
    The three returning ISS crew were replaced on the space
station by three cosmonauts who flew to orbit on March 18,
joining the three remaining U.S. colleagues of Vande Hei and a
German astronaut from the European Space Agency.
    Russia's space agency later dismissed Western media reports
suggesting the newly arrived Russian cosmonauts had chosen to
wear yellow flight suits with blue trim - the colors of
Ukraine's national flag, in support of Ukraine. They were
greeted warmly, with hugs and handshakes.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2VL1VQ
    "Sometimes yellow is just yellow," Roscosmos's press service
said on its Telegram channel.

 (Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles)
 ((steve.gorman@thomsonreuters.com; 310-491-7256; Reuters
Messaging: steve.gorman.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))