How would the short talk be?

embarrassing feelings

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hay, currently stationed aboard the International Space Station, is set to return to Earth in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft — an embarrassing quandary, given the highly tense situation between Russia and the United States developing back on Earth.

international space community She was actively distancing herself From Russia after the country’s invasion of Ukraine, a growing humanitarian crisis of devastating proportions. But for many years, Russia’s Soyuz rockets have been the de-facto way to send astronauts to and from the International Space Station, especially since NASA retired from the space shuttle in 2011.

This has started to change over the past few years, with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Transforming force dynamics By allowing NASA to send astronauts directly to the station again. But Vande Hei made it to the station aboard Soyuz last year, which means it will be his ride home, too. Let’s just hope he’s good at small talk.

for the last time

One possibility to avoid the awkward flight was that Vande Hei could assemble for the upcoming Axiom Space Ax-1 special mission on its return from the station. But a space reporter asked NASA if this is being considered They said “No.“

NASA has repeatedly claimed Operations aboard the International Space Station are going well, despite all the tensions on Earth. This sentiment contrasts starkly with recent comments made by Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space company Roscomos, who It seems threatening The United States last week with the International Space Station out of orbit uncontrollably.

It’s a precarious situation, given that the International Space Station is the product of decades of cooperation between the United States and Russia. For now, it looks like Vande Hei will have to board a Soyuz rocket to finish his astonishingly long 355-day mission aboard the orbital station.

However, he will likely be one of the last NASA astronauts to rely on a Soyuz flight — due to SpaceX’s increasing ingenuity and because of breaking point tensions between the United States and Russia.

More about the position: There’s a reason NASA shouldn’t give it to Russia: SpaceX

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