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U.S.-Russia Space Station Cooperation Should Be the Template for International Relations, Says Cosmonaut
24 November 2014
LPAC—Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, who spent 169 days on the International Space Station from March through September this year, made highly unusual political comments to RT yesterday, as a new crew was getting ready to launch to the station. "Both Russia and the U.S. have technical capabilities [to move into deep space], but there’s no understanding that we need this. Of course, it’s easier to start a war and pump a lot of money into it, than invest into the space industry," he said. "Space unites us all," he said, saying that there is a need for "more space projects that would make the people understand that there’s no need for confrontation." He explained that he "lived in the American segment [of the station]" with American, European, and Japanese crew members, "and it turns out that peace and family values are of prime importance to all of us." It is very rare for an active astronaut or cosmonaut to make comments on political issues. That is usually left to retired space flyers (similar to retired versus active duty military). Crews aboard the space station, which always include both American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts, in addition to crew members from the other partners (Europe, Japan, and Canada) have not addressed the tensions with Russia or the sanctions directly before, but have stressed how their exploration of space is not determined by national boundaries or the particular citizenship of crew members, but is universal. Marsha Freeman |
