Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab

During an interview with the China Radio International (CRI), Russian Space Chief Dmitry Rogozin said the current situation has made it impossible for Roscosmos to continue cooperation with its European counterparts.

“In fact, Roscosmos has around 10 carrier rockets that were originally scheduled for launching European spacecrafts. But considering the ESA [European Space Agency] and the European Union’s unscrupulous stance on Russia’s special military operation and its sanctions against Roscosmos, we think it impossible to continue cooperation with them. Thus, these rockets will be used to launch spacecrafts from private companies or to meet the demands of our friends in partner countries who need our launch capability,” Rogozin said.

Russophobia

Rogozin said the counterparts in Europe have been excessively politicizing space cooperation in order to play up to their leaders’ “Russophobia.”

“The space cooperation between Russia and Europe no longer depends on Russia, but depends on the attitude of the European side. They should carefully analyze everything they built and destroyed with their own hands. Only after such an analysis and candid talks with Russia can cooperation be possible to resume in a certain form,” Rogozin said.

“In short, I want to say that Roscosmos is very disappointed at our European counterparts. They have been excessively politicizing [space cooperation] in order to play up to their state leaders’ Russophobia while putting the whole international space cooperation at risk,” said Rogozin.

The Western sanctions against Russia are not limited in economy, but also involve culture and other areas.

Stupid and irresponsible

Rogozin pointed out that one American organization recently renamed an event that was originally named for cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human that orbited the Earth.

Rogozin said such an attempt to erase Gagarin, the Soviet Union or Russia from the history of human spacecraft is stupid and irresponsible.

“The history of human spacecraft is written by the space explorers with their blood and sweat, not by schemers who attempt to rewrite the history. So we must be proud of our history. Gagarin not only belongs to Russia or the Soviet Union in the past, but also belongs to the whole world, which has nothing to do with politics,” Rogozin said.

BTW: There are several Yuri’s Night activities still holding onto that name, such as this Seattle Museum of Flight event:

Go to:

https://tickets.museumofflight.org/Info.aspx?EventID=133

To view the interview, go to: