Biden’s latest Russian sanctions aim to ‘degrade Russia’s space program’

While addressing the nation on Thursday, Biden addressed the latest sanctions being put in place against Russia in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Among the industries being affected will be Russia’s space program.

While the continuation of spaceflight is hardly at the forefront of people’s thoughts right now, given all that is going on in Ukraine, some have wondered how the US and Russia’s cooperation on the Internation Space Station, with NASA Astronauts flying on the Russian Soyuz capsule and Cosmonauts set to fly on SpaceX’s Dragon Capsule, will continue.

While Roscosmos and NASA have had conflicts before, the agencies tend to put space exploration and science first, leaving most conflicts on the ground. Now, President Biden has announced increased economic sanctions against Russia that he says will impact the country’s space program.

We’ll cut off more than half of Russia’s high-tech imports. It’ll strike a blow to their ability to modernize their military, it’ll degrade their aerospace industry – including their space program, it’ll hurt their ability to build ships, reducing their ability to compete economically.

While briefly addressing the space industry, he made no comment on NASA and Roscosmos’ continued work on the space station. Exactly how the import cutoffs will affect the space program, and which specific aspects of the space program will be most affected, has not been detailed.