Russian response to sanctions leaves Europe without Soyuz rockets and delays mission to Mars

A Soyuz rocket lifts off from the European spaceport in French Guiana in April 2014.S.

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The European Space Agency has admitted today that it is “very unlikely” that it will be able to launch the Exomars Mars exploration mission, which it had developed together with Russia, into space.

The reason is the economic sanctions imposed on this country by the EU and the current context of war in Ukraine, as explained today by the agency in a statement.

The EU's enforcement measures include restrictions on the export of electronic components needed for the development of satellites and space probes.

The ESA has also "taken note" of the withdrawal of Russian personnel from the European spaceport of Kourou, in French Guiana.

These are 87 people who participated in the Soyuz rocket launches.

"In response to EU sanctions against our companies, Roscosmos suspends cooperation with European partners in organizing space launches from the Kourou Cosmodrome and withdraws its personnel, including the consolidated launch crew from French Guiana," it announced. on Saturday the Russian space agency.

The Russian agency's director, Dimitri Rogozin, also said that US participation in the Venera D mission to Venus would be "inappropriate."

Russia's move leaves the EU and Europe without one of the rockets they routinely use to launch satellites and robotic probes into space.

After this decision, the ESA assures that it will analyze the next planned launches to try to replace Russian rockets with other devices, especially the Vega C rocket, already in operation, and the Ariane 6, whose first flight was scheduled for the second half of this anus.

"We are going to fully implement the sanctions imposed on Russia by the ESA member states," says the agency's statement, issued after an emergency meeting of its 22 members, including Spain.

The organization is "analyzing the consequences" of these sanctions on its current cooperation projects with Russia.

The ESA ensures that its decisions will be aligned with those of the governments of the member countries and "in coordination" with companies and their international partners, especially with NASA in the operation of the International Space Station (ISS), adds the statement .

Precisely the station is for now one of the few cooperation projects that seem to be saved from the consequences of war and sanctions.

"Roscosmos continues to fulfill its obligations for the proper functioning of the ISS and we also continue to work to maintain the manned flight agreements," a spokesperson for the Russian space agency explained to this newspaper.

Similarly, NASA confirmed last week that its involvement in this space outpost has not changed despite sanctions.

On Friday, the head of Roscosmos made incendiary remarks in the wake of the first round of sanctions imposed by the EU and the US: "If the US blocks cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from falling on Europe?" he snapped.

The Russian withdrawal from Kourou has a direct impact on several space missions that were to be launched in the coming months, such as the launching into orbit of two satellites of the European Galileo positioning constellation scheduled for April.

Also on the wing would be the launch of the Euclid space telescope, an ESA mission to study dark energy that had a cost of about 600 million euros and whose takeoff was scheduled for February 2023 aboard a Soyuz.

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