NASA Says There is No Space for Politics Among American, Russian Astronauts

NASA says that Americans and Russian astronauts share a comradery that is above politics on the ground.

WASHINGTON, January 15 (Sputnik) — Americans and Russian astronauts share a comradery that is above politics on the ground, NASA told Sputnik on Wednesday after three US crew members in the International Space Station were forced into the Russian side in a likely false alarm ammonia leak.

“There is a Russian and US segment but it is very much a crew of six, not two crews of three. All these astronauts launched together, they work together, the entire time they are up there they train together,” the spokesperson at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston Dan Huot said.

Huot said the same comradery exists on the ground where Russian and Americans work together to ensure the safety and success of the mission.

“Politics don’t ever really enter into the equation when we are doing this sort of work,” Huot said.

An ammonia leak warning in the US segment of the International Space Station (ISS) early on Wednesday forced three US astronauts to the Russian side. NASA later said indications of the leak are likely a false alarm caused by a computer error in one of the sensors. NASA expects the three US crew members to return to the US side of the space station Wednesday night or Thursday.

The current ISS crew comprises six specialists from the United States, Russia and the European Union. It includes mission commander Barry Wilmore and flight engineer Terry Virts from NASA; flight engineers Elena Serova, Alexander Samokutyaev and Anton Shkaplerov from Roscosmos; and flight engineer Samantha Cristoforetti from the European Space Agency.