NASA Announces U.S. Astronaut at ISS Will Return to Earth via Russian Spacecraft, Crew

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that U.S. astronaut Mark Vande Hei will return to earth from the International Space Station (ISS) with Russian colleagues aboard a Russian spacecraft.

The news came in a NASA online feature on Vande Hei, a retired Army colonel who now holds the record number of days spent in low-Earth orbit — Hei was aboard the station for 355 days. 

“Vande Hei will return in a Soyuz spacecraft as scheduled alongside cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov,” the article said.

Fox News reported on Hei’s return on March 30, which is taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues:

There were some fears after Russia invaded Ukraine that the cosmonauts would ditch Vande Hei when they return to Earth in a couple of weeks. Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos and a longtime ally of Putin, posted a video of the US flag being removed from a Soyuz rocket and has publicly sparred with retired U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly.

In a tweet that has since been deleted, Rogozin allegedly told Kelly that the “death of the [ISS] will be on your conscience.”

Russian-state media outlet RIA Novosti also shared edited footage from the ISS that appears to show the cosmonauts waving goodbye to Vande Hei and departing without him before the Russian segment detaches from the rest of the space station.

“It kind of enraged me that the country that we had been in this international partnership for 20 years would take the time to make a video to threaten to leave behind one of the crew members they are responsible for,” Kelly told the Wall Street Journal.

“They agreed to be responsible for his safety, getting him to the space station and getting him home,” Kelly said. “For me, that kind of just crossed the line.”

But NASA said it will continue to work with Russia.

“We have on March 30th the return of a Soyuz, a return of Anton, Pyotr, and Mark,” Joel Mantalbano, program manager for the ISS, said at a press conference on Monday. “And I can tell you for sure Mark is coming home on their Soyuz. We are in communication with our Russian colleagues. There’s no fuzz on that.”

“Our Roscosmos colleagues have confirmed that they’re ready to bring the whole crew home,” Mantalbano said. “All three of them.”

Fox News reported that Russia’s air and space industry is one sector of the country’s economy that has been targeted for sanctions.

Sanctions “will degrade [Russian] aerospace industry, including their space program,” President Joe Biden said last month.

NASA and space agencies in Europe, Japan, and Canada want to keep ISS running until 2030 but Russia has not committed to supporting the station beyond 2024.

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