Terry Virts: "We need to reduce joint missions with Russia to the ISS"

Retired American Terry Wayne Wierts, who in 2014 was the Svyuz TMA-15M spacecraft, called for reducing joint missions with Russia at the International Space Station (ISS).

"To cooperate with the Russians to the ISS is like going to the Arctic expedition with the Nazis in 1943," Viesu said in an interview with Radio Liberty. He added that from a moral point of view, this is worthy of censure.

After the full -scale invasion of Russia to Ukraine in 2022, the International Space Station became one of the rare places where cooperation between Russia and Western countries continued. The astronauts of NASA and the European Space Agency (ECA) work together with the astronauts of the Russian Agency Roscosmos. Canada and Japan are also involved in a project that NASA calls "one of the most difficult in the history of international cooperation."

"The station was designed as interdependent, and its functioning is due to the contribution of all partnership participants," the National Aeronautics Administration and the study of space space say. - Currently, none of the partners have the opportunity to function without others. ”

Verts does not dispute this, but calls for limiting cooperation with Russia. According to him, there are two areas where it would be possible and desirable.

"Union" VS SpaceX

“We need to stop launching the Americans [into space] on the Russian“ Unions, ”says the astronaut.“ We also should not launch Russian astronauts on our rocket, while they are actively destroying our friend and ally - Ukraine. ”

Currently, the delivery of people to the ISS is carried out jointly. Crews and goods run there and back to the Soyuz and SpaceX ships, and recently Boeing Starliner with the new transport spacecraft.

“At the same time, it will still need to be controlled by the space station, and this can be done ... The station will be used for the next few years,” says Terry Wayne Wierts ( it is planned that the ISS will be operated until 2030, - approx.rc ). In his opinion, even despite this, "it is necessary, to put it mildly, to go back."

For Virts, this is a deeply personal question. His career is closely connected with the ISS. In 2010, he made the first flight as a pilot "Space Shattla". Then the last constant modules of the stations were delivered to the ISS, including the largest set of portholes ever in space.

He was on board the ISS and four years later, when battles in eastern Ukraine began: the separatists supported by Russia began to demand a department from Ukraine. This happened after the Russian troops annexed the Crimea, and Virts says that he was shocked by the reaction of the Russian astronaut, who was on the ISS with him.

"The Commander of the" Soyuz ", Anton Bablirov originally from Sevastopol to the Crimea. His wife is Ukrainian. And he is:" Our Crimea, our Crimea. "He was proud that they took the Crimea," said Verts.

However, later, Virts was more disturbed by three other cosmonauts with whom he flew into space - Alexander Samokutyaev, Maxim Suraev and Elena Serova, who became deputies of the State Duma from the party of Vladimir Putin "United Russia".

The commentary of NASA, the Freedom Radio, says that together with the Roscosmos, the flights of “integrated crews” “on board by American spacecraft and the Soyuz spacecraft” were flight to ensure the further safe operation of the ISS and its crew.

"I felt devoted"

I thought that the space station could be a great example of cooperation, not conflict

“You know, I loved the Russian language, people and Russian cuisine. I thought that the space station could be a great example of cooperation, not conflict. And here they [Russian astronauts] support the most cruel, frankly disgusting war from a moral point of view. And it was very painful. I felt devoted,” says Verts.

Samokatyev still works in the State Duma and is under the sanctions of Great Britain, the European Union and the United States. EU sanctions were introduced the day after a full -scale invasion of Ukraine, since Samokatyev voted to recognize the state independence of Russia supported by Russia in the Donbass. This was a key solution that created a legal excuse for the Kremlin for invasion of Ukraine.

The US Department of Finance said that Samokatyev and other State Duma members were subject to sanctions "for complicity in Putin's war" during the vote.

Russian astronauts Maxim Suraev and Elena Serova are no longer members of the State Duma, but continue to agitate Putin and maintain his aggression in Ukraine.

For example, Suraev was a confidant of Russian presidential candidate Putin during the 2024 election campaign. It can be seen on this video in 2024 in Donetsk occupied by Russia. According to Russian media reports, during his visit, he talked about the role of astronauts in a “special military operation”, as Russia is called a full -scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine.

Serova is an adviser to the governor of the Moscow region. On March 8, Russian state media reported that she sent “assistance” to Russian troops in Ukraine, including drones.

"Myth is scattered"

My Ukrainian friends love me, my Russian friends stopped talking to me

None of the former Russian astronauts answered Radio Liberty questions, some of which concerned how Putin’s support and war in Ukraine are consistent with the humanitarian principles of international cooperation in space.

Verts says that the Russian astronauts with whom he worked for the ISS did not talk to him either. “My Ukrainian friends love me, my Russian friends stopped talking to me,” he says.

Disagreements are accompanied by participation in the next flight to the ISS of the astronaut Alexei Zubritsky. He was born in Ukraine in 1992, last month the television channel presented that in his homeland he was wanted on charges of treason. In 2014, Zubritsky was a pilot of the Ukrainian Air Force, based in Crimea. When Russian troops invaded there, he changed his oath and stayed there after annexation.

After the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, among other Western countries imposed sanctions in relation to the space industry. Then, in an interview with Radio Liberty, the President of the Aviation and Space Manufacturers of the Czech Republic , Joseph Kashpar, said : “The Western countries can now not sell space technologies to Russia - electronics, software, some special materials. But this also works in the opposite direction: all this is now prohibited from buying from Russia. It is about the fact that it will be stopped by extremely successful cooperation in the space industry. Example: The Mir space station is now a huge question, whether it will exist at all. ”

Soon after the Russian tanks crossed the border of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow threatened to get out of cooperation on the ISS, but later stated that she would continue to participate in the mission until 2028. “We collaborated very well at the space station. We have established relations,” says Verts. At the same time, he says: "I was of the opinion that cooperation in space could help improve the situation on Earth. But, you know, this myth is scattered."