The earth may see a new Cold War, but Russia and the US are so friendly in space. Following a delayed shipment, US astronauts donated food to their Russian counterparts at the International Space Station.
The Progress MS-16 spacecraft, which was to be launched on December 11, would have brought rations to Russian cosmonauts stationed on the ISS. The delay until February 15 forced Americans to share some of their own food.
“When we asked the Americans to deliver our rations on their spacecraft, they told us that they already had a fairly large amount of food, and that our cosmonauts should use their products,” explains Alexander Agureev, the head of nutrition at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Biomedical Problems, noting that the US provides food for free.
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According to Sergey Ryzhikov, the commander of the current ISS mission, the Americans gave the Russians about 13 containers full of food rations. The ISS is currently inhabited by seven astronauts – two from Russia, four from the US and one from Japan.
Last year, the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, revealed that it might launch its own orbital station after 2024, when it believed the ISS might have to be decommissioned. The current setup is expected to operate until 2030, but Moscow is worried that it will deteriorate faster than expected.
“Until 2025, Russia is obliged to participate in the ISS program,” Vladimir Solovyov, the deputy director of the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, told the Russian Academy of Sciences. ‘There are already a number of elements that have been severely damaged and are out of order. Many of them are not replaceable. After 2025, we predict an avalanche-like failure of numerous elements aboard the ISS. ‘
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