Western countries including the United States continue to impose sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. There is even a possibility that the space sector could be affected and Russia also poses a threat regarding the International Space Station (ISS).
Russia and the US operate the ISS space station. Currently, there are two US astronauts and four Russian cosmonauts there and they are not too affected by the conflicts happening on Earth.
Well in his speech, US President Joe Biden announced new sanctions on Russia, where there will be new restrictions on what can be exported to Russia. Biden's speech did not mention NASA, NASA's collaboration with Russia in space, or the ISS explicitly, but the potential remains.
That angered the head of Russia's space agency (Roscosmos) Dmitry Rogozin and he posted several threats on Twitter. In a post posted after Biden's speech aired, Rogozin said the new sanctions would disrupt the partnership between the US and Russia.
"Do you want to destroy our cooperation on the ISS? If you stop cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from an uncontrolled deorbit and falling into the United States or Europe?" Rogozin wrote in his tweet.
"There is also the option of dropping 500-ton structures on India and China. Do you want to threaten them with such a prospect? The ISS doesn't fly over Russia, so all the risks are in your hands. Are you ready?" he continued.
Russia does maintain, among other things, the propulsion system on the ISS and keeps it in orbit. Without regular adjustments, the ISS could fall to Earth out of control and land anywhere, including densely populated areas.
In a statement responding to this, NASA said that cooperation with Russia on the ISS would continue. After all, the two need each other in this area.
"The Russian side of the ISS cannot function without electricity from the American side, and the American side cannot function without the propulsion systems that are on the Russian side," NASA astronaut Garett Reisman told CNN.