News outlets reported this week that the head of Russia's Space Agency threatened to leave American Mark Vande Hei, the record-holder for the longest spaceflight, on the International Space Station rather than allow him to return. It turns out that the threat is not true.
Vande Hei will have spent 355 days in Earth space by the time he returns to Earth on March 30, 2022, according to NASA. Vande Hei and two Russian cosmonauts, Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov and Commander Anton Shkaplerov, are going to be on a Russian ship.
According to several news outlets, the head of Russia's Space Agency threatened to abandon Vande Hei on the International Space Station after new sanctions were imposed by the US. This claim is based on a video posted on Feb. 26 by RIA Novosti.
The video was a joke, but the television station of the Russian Federal Space Agency provided footage for it. The video also suggests that Russia might strand Vande Hei on the American side of the space station, in addition to detaching its portion of the space station.
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On Friday (March 11), a NASA spokesman told The StarTribune that the return of Mark Vande Hei and Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov will happen on March 30.
Even if the threat to leave Vande Hei was legit, American astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, and others are not. Vande Hei would be able to catch another ride back to Earth.
It was originally published on Live Science.
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