ESA to implement sanctions on Russia; reveals ExoMars 2022 launch very unlikely

The European Space Agency (ESA) has released its statement regarding cooperation with Russia amid the ongoing Russian attack on Ukraine. Governed by 22 member states, the agency's statement comes after a meeting involving all member states on February 28. Denouncing the current situation in Ukraine, ESA said in its press release, "We are giving absolute priority to taking proper decisions, not only for the sake of our workforce involved in the programmes, but in full respect of our European values, which have always fundamentally shaped our approach to international cooperation."

Further in its statement, the agency said that it supports the sanctions imposed on Russia by the member states and consequences on joint ongoing programmes in collaboration with Russia are being assessed. "We are fully implementing sanctions imposed on Russia by our Member States. We are assessing the consequences on each of our ongoing programmes conducted in cooperation with the Russian state space agency Roscosmos and align our decisions to the decisions of our Member States in close coordination with industrial and international partners (in particular with NASA on the International Space Station)", ESA said as per the release. 

ExoMars mission launch in 2022 very unlikely

After observing Russian space agency Roscosmos' strict measures against the sanctions imposed on it, ESA also revealed the joint mission to Mars. It said that the continuation of the ExoMars programme and launch of the mission in 2022 is "very unlikely". "ESA’s Director General will analyse all the options and prepare a formal decision on the way forward by ESA Member States," it added. 

The agency also addressed Roscosmos' order of withdrawing its workforce from ESA-owned Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. "We will consequently assess for each European institutional payload under our responsibility the appropriate launch service based notably on launch systems currently in operation and the upcoming Vega C and Ariane 6 launchers," ESA said. 

Russia-Ukraine crisis enters day 5

It has been five days since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his army to invade eastern Ukraine known as the Donbas region, which is comprised of Donetsk and Luhansk. Ukrainian Representative at UNGA revealed that 352 people, including 16 children, have been killed on the Ukraine side as of February 28, ANI reported. On the other hand, Ukraine claimed to have killed 5,300 Russian soldiers and destroyed 29 helicopters, 191 tanks and 816 combat armoured vehicles of the Russian military. In addition to this, over 5,00,000 people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded the country on February 24, according to the Associated Press. 

Image: NASA/AP