MOSCOW – Amid deteriorating U.S.-Russia relations over Ukraine, the chief of the Russia space program threatened to abandon U.S. astronaut Mark Vande Hei on the orbiting International Space Station when the next Soyuz shuttle craft brings two Russian cosmonauts home. Van Hei, from the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park, was rocketed to the space station in April 1021 on a Soyuz shuttle. He was scheduled to ferried back this March 30 after an extended 12-month tour. The space station was built as a multi-nation endeavor in 1988. The Russians have provided shuttles with their Soyuz vehicles since 2011. At any given time, seven crew members, both Americans and Russians as well as others, are aboard the space station on rotated tours.
The threat
Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Roscosmos space agency for the Russian President Vladimr Putin, turned hostile in a long-distance conversation with U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly. Rogozin said he would detach the Russian module Soyuz, bring home Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, and leave Vande Hei behind. As the conversation became more heated, Kelly cut Rogozin off. Does the United States have recourse? Conceivably the Space X commercial venture, which has taken supplies 250 miles up to the space station, could be configured to carry home astronauts.
Vande Hei. From Minnesota. A flight engineer on four tours to the International Space Station.