Russia threatens to leave American astronaut stranded in space

Mark Vande Hei’s planned return to Earth from space at the end of the month is being jeopardized by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

On March 30, the Benilde-St. Margaret’s and St. John’s University graduate will parachute with two Russian cosmonauts to a landing in Kazakhstan.

President Joe Biden’s sanctions against Russia, on the other hand, have sparked warnings from the head of Russia’s space agency, who is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin: Dmitry Rogozin “threatened to abandon Vande Hei in space and separate Russia’s section of the space station altogether” in a video released on February 26, according to ABC News.

Vande Hei is currently orbiting the Earth at a distance of around 250 miles, onboard the International Space Station, where the US and Russian space agencies have worked together for more than two decades on research and maintenance.

NASA stated on Friday that it is continuing to work with all of its international partners, including the Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos, to ensure the station’s continued safe operations and crew members’ return to Earth.

“A Soyuz spacecraft will return to Earth on March 30 as planned, transporting NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov back to Earth,” a NASA spokeswoman told the Star Tribune in an e-mail on Friday.

“Upon their return, Vande Hei will set the American record for the longest single human spaceflight mission, lasting 355 days.”

Vande Hei flew into space for the first time in 2018 as a member of the Expedition 53/54 crew, where he conducted spacewalks, studied microgravity, and analyzed the sun’s energy input to Earth.

Vande Hei joined two Russian cosmonauts on the Expedition 64/65 crew last April, which was tasked with conducting hundreds of experiments to learn more about living in space, which NASA said was critical “to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight, and those insights gained will help send humans to the moon and eventually to Mars.”

After becoming a physics professor at the United States Military Academy in West Point, Vande Hei was chosen as an astronaut in 2009. He had previously served in the Army as a combat engineer.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Biden imposed sanctions against the country, including a cut of more than half of its high-tech imports, claiming that such a move would “degrade their aerospace industry, including their space program,” according to ABC News. Rogozin threatened to leave Vande Hei as a result of this.

Vande Hei’s work ethic, education, and military experience will help him deal with the emerging conflict with professionalism, according to Thomas Kirkman, a physics professor at St. John’s University who taught Vande Hei as an undergrad.

“I believe he periodically glances out the window at Ukraine.” “However, being a colonel, he knows how to deal with people in difficult situations,” Kirkman explained. “He’s the man for the job.” I have my doubts about the people in Moscow, but I believe the astronauts aboard the space station are experts.”

Tom and Mary Vande Hei of Chanhassen, Vande Hei’s parents, declined to comment on the likely postponement of their son’s return.

Tom Vande Hei said he and his wife traveled halfway around the world to see their son’s first launch in March, but because to the epidemic, they were unable to attend the second launch in April.

“The difficult issue is that we haven’t touched Mark in a year because of COVID, and he’s been in Russia since January,” Mary Vande Hei said last year.

Vande Hei has recently shared his experiences with members of the central Minnesota community, including communicating with students via long-distance video conversations from the International Space Station in 2018 and again last September.

Vande Hei praised the effective relationships that have made space exploration such a success in the last few decades during an international video press conference last spring in Star City, Russia. He also stated that his trip to space was only supposed to last six months, but that it could be extended — which it was — and that this would be a “bonus.”

He explained, “We strive to make sure we’re prepared for anything.”