NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly to Russia: ‘Your Space Program Won’t Be Worth a Damn’

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is straining the U.S.-Russia International Stempo Station partnership seemingly to a breaking level. Now, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Roscosmos director basic Dmitry Rogozin are duking it out in what’s an unusually terse Twitter battle.

Floating in low Earth orbit, the International Space Station has been, for essentially the most half, a secure area for Americans and Russians to work collectively, however this precarious relationship has reached a brand new low level. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, starting on February 24, sparked a flurry of worldwide sanctions, prompting Russia halt Soyuz launches from French Guiana and stop promoting rocket engines to U.S. corporations. Rogozin even went as far as to tweet that U.S. sanctions may compel Russia to let the ISS crash onto American or European soil.

On March 3, British satellite tv for pc firm OneInternet suspended its launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in response to the invasion. One day earlier, engineers on the launch pad eliminated American and Japanese flags from the Russian-built Soyuz rocket, a lot to the delight of Rogozin.

“The launchers at Baikonur decided that without the flags of some countries, our rocket would look more beautiful,” Rogozin, a staunch Putin loyalist and frequent on-line shit-stirrer, wrote in a tweet (all translations from Russian to English supplied by Google Translate).

“Dimon, without those flags and the foreign exchange they bring in, your space program won’t be worth a damn,” tweeted Scott Kelly, a retired NASA astronaut identified for spending a full 12 months on the ISS, on Sunday in response. “Maybe you can find a job at McDonald’s if McDonald’s still exists in Russia.” (In truth, McDonald’s announced on Tuesday that it might pause all its operations in Russia.)

Rogozin, a former deputy prime minister of Russia in command of the protection business, is clearly in help of the invasion and is absolutely keen to make use of Roscosmos as a platform to advertise the continued battle. “Baikonur is in solidarity with the actions of our Armed Forces, supports our guys who are fulfilling their patriotic and military duty,” stated Rogozin in a tweet that options pictures of pro-invasion iconography being added to Russian space-related belongings.

Kelly, who’s fluent in Russian—a results of his astronaut coaching—has been vocal in his outrage over the invasion, offering Russian translations of English information articles and different data over Twitter (examples here and here). Free press is at present non-existent in Russia, with the Kremlin feeding propaganda and misinformation on to state-run media shops.

Rogozin’s hostility towards the worldwide collaboration took one other darkish activate March 5, with the publication of a Roscosmos-produced video wherein Russian cosmonauts are depicted leaving the ISS. After sarcastically waving goodbye, the cosmonauts depart aboard the indifferent Russian section, leaving NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei behind (Vande Hei is at present on the ISS). This is not the primary time that Rogozin has threatened to go away the ISS.

“It’s just unimaginable that the Russian space program would leave a person behind in space that they were responsible for bringing home. I don’t see that happening,” Kelly told CNN. The invasion of Ukraine has revised his expectations, saying: “Even though I just said it was unimaginable, maybe they might leave a person behind. I don’t know.”

Rogozin, clearly annoyed by Kelly’s biting tweets, issued an offended response that he has since taken down, wherein he stated: “Get off, you moron! Otherwise the death of the ISS will be on your conscience.”

“Dimon, why did you delete this tweet?,” replied Kelly. “Don’t want everyone to see what a child you really are?” Dimon, by the way in which, is the acquainted identify for Dmitry, and Kelly is utilizing this cutesy identify to get beneath Rogozin’s pores and skin—and it’s working.

That identical day, Rogozin blocked Kelly on Twitter, prompting the retired NASA astronaut to tweet: “What, Dimon, does it hurt your eyes?” Kelly informed CNN that it’s the “first Twitter argument I’ve ever had.”

Where the Twitter dispute goes from right here is tough to inform, however neither Kelly or Rogozin appear keen to again down. Fair to say, the U.S-Russia relationship won’t ever be the identical once more. The query now’s what’s going to occur to the ISS, because the orbital outpost isn’t scheduled for retirement till the tip of the last decade.