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Three Russian astronauts weren’t making a political assertion after they boarded the Worldwide Area Station in mid-March carrying yellow flight fits with blue highlights, the colours of the Ukrainian flag, based on a NASA astronaut who was on the station on the time to greet them.
“I feel the oldsters that wore them had no thought that individuals would understand that as having something to do with Ukraine,” stated the NASA astronaut, Mark Vande Hei, who returned to Earth final week. “I feel they had been type of blindsided by it.”
Throughout a information convention on Tuesday, Mr. Vande Hei stated the colours had been these of Bauman Moscow State Technical College, which all three of the brand new arrivals had attended.
Mr. Vande Hei and a Russian astronaut, Pyotr Dubrov, spent 355 days in orbit. They and one other Russian astronaut landed in Kazakhstan after a brief journey again to Earth in a Russian Soyuz capsule. Whereas relations between the US and Russia deteriorated on Earth’s floor after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the 2 nations continued to cooperate as normal to securely convey the astronauts house.
The American astronaut stated he had not paid consideration to bellicose social media postings by Dmitry Rogozin, the top of the Russian area program who shared a video that instructed the Russians would possibly strand Mr. Vande Hei on the area station.
“Fairly truthfully, I heard concerning the tweets from my spouse,” Mr. Vande Hei stated. “I by no means perceived these tweets as something to take significantly. I simply had an excessive amount of confidence in our cooperation so far to take these tweets as something however one thing that was meant for a special viewers than myself.”
He stated folks on the station did discuss concerning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “It was not a subject I shied away from with my crewmates,” he stated. “They weren’t very lengthy discussions, however I did ask them how they’re feeling and generally ask pointed questions.”
Mr. Vande Hei additionally stated that he trusted his Russian colleagues. “We supported one another all through all the things,” he stated. “And I by no means had any issues about my potential to proceed working with them. Excellent professionals, technically competent and fantastic human beings.”
Mr. Vande Hei’s 355 consecutive days in area set a document for the longest steady keep in orbit by an American astronaut. Bodily, he’s nonetheless getting used to gravity once more. “I’m nonetheless uncomfortable,” he stated. “However people are very adaptable. And I feel that bodes properly.”
Mentally, although, life is sort of again to regular.
“I actually thought that I used to be going to hold forth with this distinctive perspective of appreciation for all issues novel about being on the planet,” Mr. Vande Hei stated. “I’m somewhat disenchanted with how regular it feels. I type of needed it to appear more odd being again.”
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