Role of International Space Station in International Politics
The International Space Station has been a great example of international cooperation. This is the project in which Russia and America worked together after the Cold War. But during the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Russia’s statement of the option to shoot down the ISS has once again exposed the space station’s weakness or fragility in terms of the political and other competition of space exploration.
Recently, Russia had said that it has the plan of bringing down the International Space Station. Many meanings are being extracted from this statement and there are some meanings which are not being declared openly. It also includes the status of the International Space Station in international politics. This issue is not very big at this time, and it is not a new issue. The ISS is a significant achievement in space exploration, but it has also become an issue in many international politics.
A Great Achievement
The International Space Station was launched in the year 1998 with the participation of many countries including America, Russia and Europe. In the last 23 years, with the cooperation of all the countries, experiments were conducted mainly on zero gravity at this station. Apart from this, such experiments were also done which was not possible to do on earth.
Russia was moving away from America
But in the last few years, member countries have had an effect on the space station. Russia didn’t agree to America’s Artemis Agreement. America had an old rivalry with China, so China decided to build its own international station in lieu of the ISS and now it has also been successful in this. At the same time, Russia also started working on plans to build its own space station at the end of last year.
The life of the International Space Station has become longer than expected. Earlier it was going to run till 2022 and then its tenure showed increasing more, but the dangers on it also kept increasing. Now NASA has recently announced that in 2031 the International Space Station will be officially closed. In such a situation, the preparation of Russia’s own space station does not look surprising.
NASA has planned to shut down the International Space Station, its intention is to bring it to Earth and sink it at the ‘Point Nemo’ place in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, which is also known as the ‘Graveyard of Spacecraft’. But Russia had tried to surprise by talking about the option of demolishing the station.
Why did Russia give this statement?
Referring to this option of Russia was a direct challenge to America. It is being said that Russia’s space industry is getting a serious setback in the sanctions imposed by the US on Russia due to the Russia-Ukraine dispute, in response to which Dmitry Rogozin, the chief of Russia’s space agency Roskomos, has given this statement. But this statement For America itself will be taken as the challenger.
A Different Kind of Polarization for Space
Even before the current crisis on the International Space Station, international politics was taking effect. The competition between the US and China prompted NASA to expand its use of the station and include more countries in its Artemis agreement. This is the reason why we have been seeing Russia and America looking for more space allies for a couple of years.
Newer Articles
- What Does Science Say: Why Other Animals Do Not Have Brains Like Humans
- Why do Countries Impose Economic Sanctions to avoid Conflict?
- Interesting Revelations For The First Time About Planet ‘Jupiter’
