Foreign Astronauts Carried Out Military Experiments at ISS, Russian Space Agency Chief Says

ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) - Foreign astronauts have carried out military experiments at the International Space Station (ISS), while cosmonauts from the Russian segment have performed Defence Ministry tasks as well, Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said in an interview with Sputnik.

"We know that our American colleagues carried out some experiments in the interests of their Defence Ministry. At first, we also carried out some experiments, civilian in essence, as this was not related to the use of weapons, but nevertheless the [Russian] Defence Ministry was among the customers", Rogozin said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

Russian cosmonauts were engaged in observations of certain areas of the Earth, the Roscosmos chief specified.

"The ISS programme has never prohibited this. At the same time, as this is an international station, people 'spy' on each other, so the freedom of conducting experiments is limited", Rogozin concluded.

SPIEF-2021 is taking place from Wednesday through Saturday in person at the Expoforum Exhibition and Convention Centre in St. Petersburg. The Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency is a media partner of the event.