American billionaire Elon Musk, owner of SpaceX, has offered to send a rocket to rescue American astronaut Mark Vandy in case the Russians abandon him. This follows Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, hinting at severing relations with the United States in the field of space cooperation, which could result, according to the Daily Mail, in leaving the 55-year-old astronaut, who is a father of two, stranded in space. Mark Vandy, an astronaut with NASA, is scheduled to return from the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Russian Soyuz vehicle on March 30th, accompanied by two Russian cosmonauts. Rogozin has threatened the entire fate of the space station in response to U.S. support for Ukraine amid the ongoing Russian military attack.
Mary, Vandy's 77-year-old mother, told the Daily Mail that what the Russian official said was a terrible threat, noting that when she first heard it, she cried a lot and still feels anxious. Her son is expected to return to the Kazakh station of the Russian agency after spending 355 days in orbit, the longest stint for a Western astronaut there. However, Rogozin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, recently tweeted a message threatening the fate of the American astronaut and the entire space station. He stated that if the Russian part were detached, it could lead to the collapse of the 500-ton International Space Station.
For her part, the American astronaut's mother, a retired teacher from Minneapolis, Minnesota, called for calm from all parties, adding: "It's really a shame to politicize this issue in such a way. It's a huge shock. His wife Julie is extremely worried in Texas. The situation is very difficult for her right now." She recalls how she and her husband Tom joined their son in Kazakhstan in 2017 to witness his launch to the International Space Station during his first six-month space mission. She said, "It was great to see people from all different countries working together. Mark has great relationships with all the astronauts."
NASA: The Astronaut Will Return
Meanwhile, officials from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) stated that the American astronaut is still scheduled to return from the International Space Station with two other astronauts aboard their Russian Soyuz vehicle later this month, despite the U.S.-Russian hostility due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Joel Montalbano, NASA's International Space Station program manager, said on Monday that U.S.-Russian cooperation on the station, which currently includes four Americans, two Russians, and one German, remains far from tense. Long-standing U.S.-Russian cooperation in space came under doubt last month when Dmitry Rogozin stated that U.S. sanctions on Russia due to the conflict in Ukraine could destroy the crew on the International Space Station and potentially lead to the station's demise.
