, showing support for the nation under attack. With the company already ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station, reducing NASA's dependence on Russian Soyuz rides, it seems more possible than ever that SpaceX could fully replace the need for Russia's Soyuz capsule.Last week, after Russia invaded Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden announced his administration would implement new sanctions that would significantly affect Russia's space program.
In response, Dmitry Rogozin, the director general of Russian space agency Roscosmos, shared his candid thoughts online."Do you want to destroy our cooperation on the ISS?" "If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from uncontrolled deorbiting and falling into the United States or Europe? There is also the option of dropping a 500-ton structure to India and China.
Europe also enacted severe sanctions in response to Russia's invasion into Ukraine. After Europe announced these sanctions, Roscosmos said on Feb. 26 that it would stop its partnership with Europe that enables Soyuz launches from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana.
This partnership was created by NASA with the explicit purpose of decreasing NASA's reliance on Russia's Soyuz capsule, which was the agency's only vehicle to the station after the space shuttle program closed in 2011. Now, SpaceX founder Elon Musk has seemed to show public support for Ukraine by announcing that Starlink service is now active in the country, and adding that"more terminals [are] en route,"
I knew it! Thank goodness for SpaceX!
Hopefully they have robust security in place. SpaceX space program suddenly is as important as Nasa for USA.