Space wars: Russian aggression has already gone beyond the Earth

The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine has led not only to devastating consequences on Earth, but also affected the space sphere. Now, here, too, cases of piracy, propaganda and aggressive behavior on the part of Russia are recorded. Read more about this publication with the BBC.

Photo: Shutterstock

Russia's attack on Ukraine led to sanctions against the Kremlin and the almost complete termination of international cooperation in the scientific and space sphere. Dozens of Roskosmos enterprises also fell under the restrictions.

The head of this structure, Dmitry Rogozin, even found a positive in this - "finally everything will be its own and will remain in the country."

“There is no need to worry about the rocket and space industry,” he assured the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, on Cosmonautics Day on April 12.

The development of events showed that we still have to worry. True, Moscow decided to respond to the new "space problems" with new threats.

"Heavenly Communal"

After February 24, Russia became a virtual "exile" in space, says Andriy Kolesnik, a former head of the analytical unit and a former adviser to the chairman of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU). Almost all international programs have been curtailed, cooperation has been put on hold.

In Kyiv, they called for the complete exclusion of the Russian Federation from all world programs for space exploration.

“You cannot jointly invest in international space exploration projects, in projects to promote world civilization together with the state, which destroys this civilization, shoots people with their hands tied, rapes children and steals toilet bowls in our cities,” explained Vladimir Taftai, head of the SSAU.

But one nuance does not allow the world community to talk about the complete "cosmic cancellation" of Russia. It is still present on the International Space Station (ISS) and will remain there for at least the next couple of years.

On the subject: 10 book and movie misconceptions about space that you should stop believing

Her stay on it is regulated by an intergovernmental agreement dated January 29, 1998. In addition to the Russian Federation, Canada, the USA, Japan and the European Space Agency were signatories.

“The ISS is an inseparable “communal apartment” that conditionally consists of two segments – Russian and American,” Kolesnik noted. “Each party has its own obligations: technical, organizational, financial for the operation of the station.”

The preliminary term of the agreement on the operation of the station expires in 2,5 years - at the end of 2024. The United States and Russia seemed to be willing to extend it until 2030. The Americans planned by that time to launch a private space station, the modules of which must first be docked with the ISS. But the war in Ukraine changed the plans of both sides.

Roskosmos began to say that the sanctions imposed against the Russian Federation make it "skeptical" about the prospects for cooperation with the Americans in orbit. The US space agency NASA assured that the events in Ukraine did not affect the "professional relations" with the Russians on the ISS.

But in early July, an event occurred on the space station that could significantly change the minds of the United States and other space nations.

Propaganda on a cosmic scale

“Day of the liberation of the Luhansk People's Republic. We celebrate both on Earth and in space,” such a text appeared on the official telegram page of Roskosmos on July 4, the day the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on the capture of the Luhansk region of Ukraine.

But most importantly, the Russian space agency distributed a photo of its cosmonauts on the ISS, holding the flags of the "Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics" in their hands.

“At the end of my sixth decade, for the first time in my life, I am glad that I did not become an astronaut. And that I have nothing to do with the current Roskosmos at all, - Vadim Lukashevich, a well-known Russian aviation expert, commented on this event.

How and when these flags of separatist entities got into low Earth orbit is one question. Quite different is whether the astronauts had the right to make such political gestures at the international station.

Expert Andrey Kolesnik is sure not. He considers this a violation of the first article of the agreement on the operation of the ISS since 1998.

“It clearly states that this is a civilian station, which is operated for peaceful purposes. And by their actions, in fact, they are propagandizing a war of conquest in Ukraine,” the analyst noted.

He believes that there should be a reaction of the partner countries in the ISS to this Russian "trick". It is impossible to drive the Russian Federation out of the station, but the US has another leverage to influence the situation. We are talking about the so-called cross flights, that is, when Russia and the United States undertake to deliver to the station on their ships at least one cosmonaut from each other.

Russia has already stated that, despite the sanctions, it supports this practice. But the United States has not yet given an answer, although they should have done so at the end of June.

On July 6, Rogozin said that it was necessary to wait another one or two weeks.

“NASA always consults in such matters with the US State Department, which is responsible for the international aspects of the country’s space activities. Now it is difficult to say what their decision will be after this “trick” of the Russian cosmonauts, which took place on July 4, emphasized Andrei Kolesnik. “It seems to me that it is after this that the State Department will not recommend that NASA agree to the idea of ​​“cross flights” at this stage.”

It should be noted that Roskosmos not only delivered propaganda for the war in Ukraine to the ISS, but also continues to actively attach it to its launch vehicles. So, on June 3, a Soyuz-2 rocket took off from the Russian cosmodrome, which was urgently called the Donbass and painted in the colors of the DNR and LNR flags.

You may be interested in: top New York news, stories of our immigrants and helpful tips about life in the Big Apple - read it all on ForumDaily New York

The head of the Space Agency of Ukraine Volodymyr Taftai promises that such actions of the Russian Federation will not go unpunished: “Of course, Ukraine, in particular, will react to such impudent behavior, since in fact this is another fact of an encroachment on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state, but already in outer space ".

The SSAU initiated an appeal to the countries participating in the intergovernmental agreement on the ISS with a call to condemn these provocative actions of the Russian Federation and to stop joint space projects and programs with it as much as possible. The Kremlin's actions are not only a violation of international agreements, but also "an absolute disregard for moral standards," Taftai is sure.

space pirates

But not only propaganda actions characterize Russia's space activities after the start of a full-scale war in Ukraine. In June, Roskosmos tried for the first time in history to "steal" a German-owned telescope. It is located at the Spektr-RG joint space observatory.

This device, moving in near-Earth orbit, has been scanning the starry sky in the X-ray range since December 2019 to study the structure of the Universe. Once every six months, he published detailed maps of galaxy clusters and black holes.

This result was achieved through the use of two telescopes at once - the Russian ART-XC and the German eROSITA. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the German side announced the shutdown of its telescope.

The head of Roskosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, did not find anything better than simply taking the German device into his own hands. On June 4, he ordered eROSITA to be turned on without the permission of Berlin.

“The time will come when the Germans themselves will thank us,” Rogozin explained.

His instructions were never carried out; both employees of the space observatory and scientists of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) opposed such "piracy".

“We didn’t create this device and we didn’t operate it,” said the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeev, even admitting that Russian specialists could break the German telescope.

The head of Roskosmos did not back down from his idea. True, he delayed the inclusion of someone else's spacecraft by 1-1,5 months, that is, until the end of summer.

Rogozin discovered a new object for "appropriation in the interests of Russia" in early July. Now he is interested in enterprises producing microelectronics, which is critical for the Russian space industry, namely the production of satellites.

“I would suggest nationalizing this industry and handing it over to Roskosmos and Rosatom,” the official said on July 5.

Thus, private factories that produced these products may soon become the property of the Russian state.

satellite wars

As for the importance of satellites for Russia, Rogozin is certainly right here.

But by developing and increasing the number of its "eyes" in orbit, Moscow began to take active steps to "dazzle" the satellites of other countries. Especially the ones she considers "unfriendly".

The Starlink and Viasat systems, which are used to provide communications for the Ukrainian military, were the first to come under attack. Immediately after the Russian invasion, “unknown hackers” attacked the ground infrastructure responsible for the operation of Viasat satellites.

This led to problems with Internet communications in government agencies and the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

But the Ukrainian military was backed up by Elon Musk, who provided them with thousands of Starlink terminals for access to satellite Internet.

For this, he paid with a powerful attack on them from Russia and personal hatred from Dmitry Rogozin. He publicly threatened the American with responsibility for "involvement in the supply of fascist forces in Ukraine with Starlink military communications equipment."

It should be noted that Russia has not yet directly attacked satellites in orbit, although it has the appropriate weapons.

In the fall of 2021, she demonstrated the operation of her anti-satellite missile for the first time and blew an old Soviet satellite into space. In addition, she did it negligently putting other spacecraft in danger from millions of debris.

“The Russians cannot have a direct impact on space objects,” Kolesnik notes, and immediately corrects himself: “More precisely, they already can, but so far they are not exerting it. They affect the terrestrial infrastructure that supports the space activities of satellites.”

In this context, he points to the persistent attempts of the Russian Federation to interfere with the operation of the American satellite navigation system - GPS. There have been attempts to interfere with the signal during the active phase of events in eastern Ukraine, says a former adviser to the chairman of the SSAC.

According to him, Russia is trying not only to block the signal, but to intercept and mutilate it. This can, for example, send the ship in the wrong direction.

All of these aggressive actions by the Kremlin violate the 1967 Treaty on the Use of Outer Space, also known as the “Constitution of Outer Space.”

For understanding: in this short document, which describes only the basic elements of space activities, the phrase "for peaceful purposes" is used 8 times.

Ukrainian problems

And what about Ukraine? It is clear that against the backdrop of a crushing and full-scale military aggression, the Ukrainian authorities do not particularly focus on the problems of the space industry. And this despite the fact that in 2019-2021 it not only interested the new President Volodymyr Zelensky, but also became one of his priorities.

On his initiative and public support, talk began about the revival of Ukraine's rocket science, participation in the exploration of the moon, and the construction of a Canadian cosmodrome.

Ambitious tasks were laid down in the Space Program for 2021-2025 worth 40 billion hryvnias. It was approved by the government and the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada. But she never got to the last step - voting in parliament. The war has begun. Since 2018, Ukraine continues to live without a space program and, accordingly, without funding for these projects.

One of Zelensky's plans to conquer space was nevertheless realized.

On the subject: 'So that tyrants don't get him': American astronauts will deliver the flag of Ukraine into space

About a month before the invasion of Russian troops, in January 2022, the Ukrainian satellite Sich-2-30 took off on a Falcon rocket into the sky from the American cosmodrome. So, Ukraine finally got into the list of states that have at least one of their own satellites in orbit. Zelensky dedicated this to the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's independence.

But in the future, this success began to receive a somewhat "bitter aftertaste."

After a couple of weeks, it turned out that there was no stable connection with the satellite, which made it difficult to build its necessary orientation in orbit. A couple of days before the war, the Pivdenne design bureau nevertheless reported that the “flight tests” of the Ukrainian Sich-2-30 had been resumed.

The war slowed down work with the satellite, says Vladimir Taftai.

“Some of the enterprises that participated in the creation of the apparatus are located in the front-line territories, some of them did not work most of the time, some of them are only now trying to resume work. Therefore, we were forced to partially suspend work on flight tests of the satellite, ”he explained.

The head of the department promises: as soon as the enterprises are able to fully function, flight tests will be completed, and the public will receive a report on the results of the satellite.

At present, the head of the SSAU notes, thanks to the intensification of work with foreign partners, activities are being carried out to obtain data from their satellite observations. Based on the results of their processing, analytical information, navigation data, and geophysical monitoring data are prepared. This helps, in particular, the domestic security and defense forces.

At the same time, the head of the department does not hide: the enterprises of the space industry of Ukraine have suffered significantly from the hostilities. It should be noted that some of them were located right at the front line, for example in Kharkov and Zaporozhye.

According to Taftai, the total amount of damage from the destruction of these enterprises is about 1 billion hryvnia (about $34 million).

For this money, Ukraine could build and launch 4-5 satellites into orbit. These "eyes" would not interfere with the Ukrainian troops on the battlefield.

Read also on ForumDaily:

What better saves from the heat: hot tea or ice cream

How much do you need to earn in different states to afford to buy a house

US citizenship certificate: why is it needed and why an American passport is not enough

Where to go to work so as not to be afraid of the crisis: four areas that are not afraid of a recession

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.