The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, announced the termination of cooperation with the German Centre for Aviation and Cosmonautics to conduct scientific experiments on the ISS in connection with German sanctions against the Russian Federation.
"The termination of cooperation with the Russian Federation announced by the leadership of the Federal Republic of Germany in the field of higher education, scientific research and vocational training, of course, causes irreparable damage to the established long-term cooperative ties and significantly hinders activities in the field of space exploration for peaceful purposes," Rogozin said. "In this regard, I consider it impossible to continue cooperation between the Roscosmos State Corporation and the German Center for Aviation and Cosmonautics on the implementation of joint space experiments on the International Space Station, including the Uragan, Matryoshka-R, Vampire and Ecoplasm experiments."
Roscosmos noted that the Russian programme of these experiments will be carried out in full without the participation of the German side. As specified, the Uragan experiment is dedicated to the development of a ground-based monitoring and forecasting system for the development of natural and man-made disasters.
During the “Matryoshka-R” experiment, the dynamics of the radiation situation on the flight path and in the compartments of the ISS and the accumulation of dose in an anthropomorphic phantom placed inside and outside the station are investigated.
In the Vampire experiment, crystals of CdZnTe solid solutions are grown by the method of a moving solvent zone in a rotating magnetic field. The Ecoplasm experiment is designed for kinetic studies of fundamental classical processes in condensed matter using large three-dimensional systems of complex plasma.
Besides, Russia stops supplying RD-180 rocket engines to the US, which was also announced on March 3 by Rogozin. According to him, since the mid-90s of the last century, 122 RD-180 engines for Atlas missiles have been delivered to the US, 98 of them have been used.
“We are not only refusing to supply these engines, but also from the maintenance of the remaining engines,” Rogozin said.
In addition, on March 2, Roscosmos demanded that the UK government withdraw from the shareholders of OneWeb “in connection with the hostile position of the UK towards Russia.”
On the same day, Roscosmos requested a guarantee from the French launch operator Arianspace that OneWeb satellites would not be used for military purposes. This happened after the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle with the Fregat upper stage and British OneWeb communications satellites were installed at the launch complex of site No. 31 (Vostok) of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Izvestia reports.
On February 26, it was reported that in response to EU sanctions, Roscosmos was suspending cooperation with Europe on launches from the Kourou cosmodrome in French Guiana.
Ru-Main, 03.03.2022
Source: Interfax
