Russia is threatening to leave an American astronaut stranded in space as tensions escalate between the U.S. and the Kremlin over its invasion of Ukraine, according to reports.
Astronaut Mark Vande Hei is scheduled to end his 355-day mission in three weeks by landing in Kazakhstan with two Russian cosmonauts via a Russian spacecraft.
However, Dmitry Rogozin, Director General of Roscosmos, posted on social media last month that he is threatening to leave Vande Hei behind in space.
In a vido posted by Russia’s space agency, Russian cosmonauts wave goodbye to Vande Hei in space and detach Russia’s segment of the International Space Station altogether.
“The Roscosmos television studio jokingly demonstrated the possibility of Russia withdrawing from the ISS project—the undocking of the Russian segment of the station, without which the American part of the project cannot exist,” read in the caption of the video.
Former National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut Scott Kelly fired back at Rogozin over the threatening posts.
“It kind of enraged me that the country that we had been in this international partnership for 20 years would take the time to make a video to threaten to leave behind one of the crew members they are responsible for,” Kelly told reporters on Thursday.
“They agreed to be responsible for his safety, getting him to the space station and getting him home. For me, that kind of just crossed the line,” he added.
NASA said that sanctions against Russia by the White House would not affect ISS operations and that that agency will continue to support “ongoing in orbit and ground station operations.”
Earlier this month, it was reported that two Americans participating in a bizarre experiment by NASA have been living in a capsule located in Moscow for four months with no idea about the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The group—consisting of Americans William Brown and Ashley Kowalski, as well as three Russians and an Emirati—were selected by NASA and Russia’s Institute of Biomedical Problems, which is helping to supervise the experiment.
It is believed that NASA is continuing on with the experiment despite the U.S. State Department’s travel advisory to Russia.
