world news today: Russia stops Soyuz space rocket launch at European spaceport

The sanctions imposed by the European Union on military operations in Ukraine resulted in the suspension of the launch of the Soyuz space rocket by the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos.

Initially the spacecraft was launched from the European spaceport in French Guiana. This has also been confirmed by Roscosmos Head Dmitry Rogozin in a statement on Twitter on Saturday.

"Roscosmos is suspending cooperation with European partners in arranging a space launch from the Kourou cosmodrome and withdrawing its personnel, including a consolidated launch crew, from French Guiana," it tweeted.

Quoting Space.com, Monday (28/2/2022), Russia also withdrew 87 of their workers from the spaceport, which supported the launch of Soyuz rockets for Roscosmos and other Russian companies.

"The issue of the departure of Russian employees is being resolved," Roscosmos wrote in a statement.

Russian Soyuz rockets are used by European launch provider Arianespace, to launch satellites from the Guiana Space Center near Kourou, French Guiana, and the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The last Soyuz rocket launched from the Guiana Space Center took off on February 10 and carried 34 OneWeb internet satellites.

Soyuz Arianespace's next launch is scheduled for early April, and brings two Galileo navigation satellites into orbit for the European Union's constellation Galileo. This mission will almost certainly be delayed.

Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Space, said Russia's decision to stop the Soyuz launch had no impact on user services for the Galileo satellite or the European Union's Copernicus Earth observation satellite program.

"I reiterate that this decision has no consequences for the continuity and quality of the services of Galileo and Copernicus," Breton said in a statement.

"This decision also does not jeopardize the sustainable development of this infrastructure," he continued.

Quoted from The Verge, Russia and Europe have also actually prepared a robotic mission to Mars which will take place this year.

European Space Agency director Josef Aschbacher said they would continue to work on all of its programs, including on the ISS and EXOMars launch campaigns, although they would continue to "monitor the situation as it develops."

In addition to temporarily severing ties with Arianespace, Roscosmos also excluded the United States from the joint mission to explore Venus on the Venera-D mission.

According to Rogozin on Saturday local time, continued US participation in the Venera-D mission was "inappropriate" given the sanctions imposed on Russia.

Rogozin also claimed these sanctions would damage relations between Russia and NASA, potentially leading to the downing of the International Space Station.

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