US Sanctions Could “Destroy” Space Station Partnership: Russian Space Chief

Dmitry Rogozin said Russia will carry out the mission alone or with China’s participation.Moscow: 

The US may not be a part of the joint space project Vanera-D with Russia to explore planet Venus following American sanctions on the country and Moscow will carry out the mission alone or with China’s participation, the head of the Russian space agency said on Saturday.

Venera-D is a planned joint space exploration project between Russia’s Roscosmos and US space agency NASA to explore Venus.

The US and its allies have decided to block assets of four large Russian banks, impose export controls and sanction oligarchs close to Russian President Vladimir Putin after he ordered a “special military operation” against Ukraine on Thursday.

The sanctions “will degrade” Russia’s “aerospace industry, including their space programme”.

“The United States’ participation in the project is impossible due to the sanctions,” Director General of the Russian State Space Agency Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin was quoted as saying by the state-run TASS news agency.

Rogozin said Russia will carry out the mission alone or with China’s participation.

The Russian space agency chief said that he had handed down instructions on Friday to launch talks with Beijing on mutual technical assistance for all space research missions.

On Friday, Russia used its veto power in the UN Security Council to block a resolution proposed by the US and other Western countries that would have condemned Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. India, China and the UAE abstained from voting on the resolution.