Russian cosmonauts arrive at the International Space Station wearing the colors of the Ukrainian flag | Abroad

Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) Friday evening after a nearly three-hour flight. They are the first astronauts to reach the International Space Station since the start of the war in Ukraine. They took off from the Baykonur launch site in Kazakhstan, leased by Russia, with the Soyuz launch vehicle.

It is remarkable that they left in a blue suit, but as soon as they arrived at the International Space Station they were dressed in yellow. With the colors of the Ukrainian flag, people usually want to express their solidarity with the Ukrainian people. But it’s not entirely clear if the astronauts want to send the same message. They claimed in a statement that there was no political message behind it. “Every crew chooses a different flight suit so that they are not all the same. Our role was to choose the color of the uniform. We collected a lot of yellow material, so we had to use that as well. That’s why we wore yellow uniforms,” said Russian Oleg Artemyev. coincidence.

The International Space Station host committee is composed of Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Peter Dubrov, German astronaut Matthias Maurer and Americans Mark Vande He, Thomas Marshburne, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron. It’s Maurer’s birthday today/Friday and we’re going to celebrate this with the all-new crew.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting sanctions against Russia have not had a particularly noticeable operational impact on the International Space Station at present, although the threats came from Moscow. For example, American astronaut Mark Vande Hei returns home with Soyuz and will not have to leave him behind, as some are starting to get scared.