Russia says it will not strand American astronaut in space despite media reports

A flurry of news reports last week claimed that Russia was threatening to strand an American on the International Space Station in response to sanctions placed on the country. Russia's state space corporation is trying to allay those fears, saying that it will bring the astronauts home as planned.

Mark Vande Hei is a NASA Astronaut who has been living on the International Space Station. Vande Hei and two other people boarded a Russian rocket for the trip to the International Space Station. He will return home in a Soyuz capsule on March 30th after living on the International Space Station for a full year. He will have the record for the longest continuous spaceflight by an American when he returns.

Last week, there were fears that Russia might refuse to bring Vande Hei home. The confusion was caused by a video shared by RIA Novosti, a Russian state news program, that showed footage of Vande Hei on the International Space Station with his fellow Russian cosmonauts. The clip was cut together so that it looked like the Russians were going to leave him behind and take the Russian portion of the space station with them.

The threat was always in doubt. A message from RIA Novosti implied that the video was a joke, after the head of Roscosmos shared it to his Telegram channel.

Many US news reports took the video seriously. Good Morning America and Fox News reported that Russia was threatening to leave Vande Hei behind. Russia is refuting those claims in a new story from the state-run media outlets.

Mark Vande Hei will return to the US with Russia's Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov on March 30, according to the statement. Vande Hei and his crew are going to land in Kazakhstan, which has been the landing location for all previous Soyuz landings. NASA has maintained that both the US space agency and the Russian space agency continue to work together on the International Space Station.

In the report, the corporation tried to downplay the furor.

It is becoming a challenge for partners to discern when to take space reports seriously. The United States and Europe have imposed sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine invasion, and that's why Rogozin has been on a bit of a social media rant. They ranged from menacing threats to ridiculous videos, like this one of a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

The head of Russia's space program, Rogozin, sometimes says things online that translate to policy. On March 2nd, Rogozin posted a video of himself on the internet, in which he issued a series of demands to OneWeb. Russia was supposed to launch a new set of satellites for OneWeb on a Russian rocket in March, but the company didn't promise that the satellites wouldn't be used for military purposes and the UK government didn't approve. The Soyuz was rolled back from the launchpad because the company did not comply with the demands. The launch never happened.