While War In Ukraine Rages Below, Astronauts Cooperate Above
Source: Forbes Cross post from LBN
The 1984 movie 2010 features American and Russian astronauts working together on a space mission, but when tensions between the two countries on Earth simmer to a boiling point, the governments order the crews to separate.
Former American astronaut Gregory Chamitoff recalls watching the movie with Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Konoenko while the three served on the International Space Station together in 2008. “As soon as it came up, I said, ‘You guys get back on your own side!’” he recalls joking.
It was a humorous moment that right now seems oddly relevant. The world is on edge with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while at the same time, four U.S. astronauts and a European are living and working with two Russian cosmonauts 250 miles above the conflict zone. This isn’t the first time that astronauts and cosmonauts have been on the station together while geopolitical tensions festered below. Crews aboard the station have lived through several Earthbound crises since expeditions began in October 2000, and according to the astronauts who spoke with Forbes, astronauts have always continued to cooperate.
Chamitoff, for example, was on the station with Volkov and Konoenko when Russia clashed with neighboring Georgia over the South Ossetia region. “We talked about it,” he says. “And they explained to me their perspective on what was happening from their understanding of the relationship between Russia and Georgia.”
Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2022/02/24/while-war-in-ukraine-rages-below-astronauts-cooperate-above/?sh=658e9fce1255