Russian cosmonauts wear uniforms in the colors of Ukraine 2:33
(CNN) --
The three Russian cosmonauts who boarded the International Space Station (ISS) last month in spacesuits echoing the colors of the Ukrainian flag were paying tribute to their university, not protesting Russia's invasion. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei said Tuesday.
The yellow and blue spacesuits surprised many observers, who assumed the Russians were showing support for Ukraine.
However, the three cosmonauts are all graduates of Bauman Moscow State Technical University, which has yellow and blue in its emblem.
Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station dressed in yellow and blue, sparking speculation
Vande Hei said cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov were caught off guard by the controversy over their spacesuits.
"All three were associated with the same university, and I think they were a little bit surprised by that," he said at a news conference.
In this still image from video provided by Roscosmos, Russian cosmonauts Sergey Korsakov, Oleg Artemyev, and Denis Matveev participate in a welcome ceremony after arriving at the International Space Station on March 18.
(Roscosmos/AP)
Vande Hei said he was not afraid to talk about the war with his fellow ISS crew members.
"They weren't very long discussions, but I asked them how they felt and sometimes I asked direct questions, but our focus was on our mission together."
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Vande Hei landed in Kazakhstan in a Russian Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft on March 30 after spending a record 355 days in space.
He returned from the space station with cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov.
geopolitical tensions
His return from the ISS was highly anticipated and drew unprecedented attention due to rising geopolitical tensions fueled by the head of the Russian space agency, Dmitry Rogozin, who made several social media posts directed at the United States.
This included Rogozin retweeting a partially animated video that appeared to threaten that Russian astronauts would abandon Vande Hei in space.
Rogozin was also involved in a Twitter feud with retired NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who held the record for the longest stint in space by an American astronaut until Vande Hei surpassed him.
NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei is carried into a medical tent shortly after he and his Roscosmos crewmates Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov landed in their Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft near the city of Zhezkazgan on March 30. 2022 in Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.
Vande Hei said he learned about the tweets from his wife.
"I never perceived those tweets as something to take seriously," she said, adding that she saw them as directed at a "different audience" besides him.
"I just didn't spend a lot of emotional energy paying attention to it. I heard about it. I laughed and moved on," he said.
Russian Space Agency warns US sanctions could 'destroy' cooperation on International Space Station
On Saturday, Rogozin suggested in a series of tweets that Russia might end cooperation with the ISS due to international sanctions against Moscow, saying Russia would prepare "concrete proposals to the leaders of our country" on the possibility of ending the ISS. cooperation on the ISS with the space agencies of the United States, Canada, the European Union and Japan.
NASA said that "the professional relationship between our international partners, astronauts and cosmonauts continues for the safety and mission of all aboard the ISS."
Other parts of Russia's space program have been affected by the war in Ukraine.
The ExoMars Rover planetary rover project, a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, had to be postponed.
The Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft lands in a remote area near the city of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, with NASA's Mark Vande Hei and Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov on Wednesday, March 30.
Russian crewmates are and will be "dear friends"
Vande Hei refused to reveal how the Russians on board felt about the Ukraine invasion.
"Those are things I'd rather you share directly than me share how you feel about it," he said.
He said the invasion itself was "heartbreaking, very sad" and felt "helpless" to learn of it while living in space.
Vande Hei said that did not change his feelings towards his Russian crewmates.
"They were, are and will continue to be very dear friends of mine. We support each other through everything. And I never had any concerns about my ability to continue working with them."
Landing after his unprecedented mission, Vande Hei said he was able to walk after about eight hours, although he said he was wobbly.
He said he was also happy to eat some guacamole for the first time in a year and was surprised at how normal it felt to be back on Earth after so much time in space.
"It's a little disappointing how normal it feels."
CNN's Rachel Crane and Ross Levitt contributed to this report.
International Space Station NASA
