European Space Agency to stop working with Russia on three lunar missions2022-04-13 18:12 by DanielaTags: European Space Agency
The European Space Agency (ESA) on Wednesday announced that it will stop working with Russia on moon missions because of their attack in Ukraine. "Following the Russian aggression against Ukraine, ESA's Director General has initiated a comprehensive review of all activities currently undertaken in cooperation with Russia and Ukraine," ESA said in a statement. The statement said that 'ESA's science and technology for these missions remains of vital importance' and the space agency was working to find alternatives to continue the missions using other machines. The war in Ukraine has forced ESA to review all its collaborations with Russian space agency Roscosmos. The ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover was supposed to launch to Mars later this year, but as Roscosmos was to provide both the rocket for launch and platform for landing, that's no longer happening. The rover is now tucked away in storage as ESA, with help from Thales Alenia Space of Italy, evaluates the best way to move forward. A resumption of the ExoMars mission isn't likely to happen soon, as ESA needs to replace Russia's Kazachok lander and descent stage - not the kind of thing that suddenly appears overnight, unlike a rocket, for example. The development comes amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which has led organizations and companies to halt operations or nix business entirely with Moscow in protest of the invasion. Read more -here-
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