Choosing sides in space

Ukraine forces change and alliances

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Engineers have been working for a decade on a Mars rover to learn if there was life on the red planet. The rover is ready, but those engineers just lost their Russian ride. “Of course this is painful, “ the Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA) said in response to my question about the decision to end all cooperation with Russia.

The Europeans pulled the plug on the ExoMars mission with Russia. Because this is a blanket decision to end cooperation, ESA’s plan to go to the moon in a joint effort with Russia is also dead.

Artist rendering of ESA's ExoMars orbiter and rover. (Credit: ESA)

ESA has plenty of space ambitions. They spent a good part of a decade talking to China about cooperation on missions and more. Those talks chilled in recent years. Now with the war in Ukraine and the end of the Russian joint venture, the Europeans are recalculating.

CHOOSING SIDES

The general consensus is that Putin was trying to drive a wedge between members of NATO when he invaded his neighbor. The opposite has happened. NATO has coalesced in its support of Ukraine. Something similar is happening in space.

European engineers have worked on ExoMars rover for a decade and now have no way to get it to Mars. This demonstration was in October of 2018. (Credit: ESA)

ESA is now moving closer to the US and NASA. Already the Europeans are talking about whether they would join up with NASA on the ExoMars mission and whether they could offer a cargo lunar lander.

"A FRIEND INDEED"

ESA’s Josef Aschbacher was direct in saying, “in crisis situations, and when things are getting difficult, the partners are sticking together.” The ESA Director General also confirmed his member states are cozying up closer to NASA, declaring, “as we say, a friend in need is a friend indeed… I am the friend in need, and this really has been just tremendous.”

ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher on his agency's decision to cut all cooperation with Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. (Credit: NASA)

Former NASA Deputy Administrator in the Obama Administration Lori Garver (author of the soon to be released book Escaping Gravity) isn’t surprised by the moves by ESA. She says NASA is the best international space partner in the world.

While the Europeans flirted with the Chinese and engaged with the Russians, Garver says, “I'm sure they had good reasons at the time, but they were probably never going to be as good as a partner as the US. So I think we are sort of back full circle.”

Former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver. (Credit: NASA)

The divide does appear to be widening between East and West. As the Europeans are moving closer to the Americans, the Russians and Chinese are joining forces hoping to do more together in space. There have been issues between the two countries over space in the past. The Chinese basically copied many Russian spacecraft and equipment.

CHINA-RUSSIA COOPERATION

China just completed a six month mission on its new space station. Parts of that station were boosted to space by a rocket that China lost control of after its fuel ran out. The rocket tumbled through the atmosphere and fortunately slammed into an ocean rather than a landmass.

(Credit: Chinese Manned Space Agency)

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson uses that as an example of a lack of transparency with the Chinese. They would not share the trajectory data for that rocket, says Nelson. “We want cooperation with the Chinese, but it takes two to tango and there has been no forthcoming from the Chinese government about that cooperation. And so we will deal with it. As it progresses,” he said in response to my question.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson says the Chinese have not been transparent about space issues and have showed no sign of interest in cooperation. (Credit: NASA)

Garver believes the US is a decade in front of Chinese in human spaceflight technology. She admits that while the US-Russia cooperation on the International Space Station is continuing, cooperation between the East and West, “is breaking down because of the Russian aggression.”

China's launch of Shenzhou X. (Credit: Chinese Manned Space Agency)

“I'd love to see a reformed rest of the world (Russia and China) cooperating with us, but that will be up to them,” Garver said.

(Cover image credit: ESA)