Mark Vande Hei, the American who has been in space for nearly a year, faces a difficult assignment: riding a Russian capsule back to Earth in the midst of tension between the two countries.
Even as Russia's invasion of Ukraine has resulted in canceled launches, broken contracts and an escalating war of words from the leader of the Russian Space Agency, Nasa insists that Vande Hei's return at the end of the month remains unchanged.
The International Space Station is one of the places where many worry about the future of the partnership.
Vande Hei will break the US single spaceflight record of 340 days when he leaves with two Russians for a return to Earth on March 30. He will have spent 355 days in space. Russia holds the world record for longest time.
Scott Kelly, America's record-holder until Tuesday, is one of those sparring with the ally of Putin. Kelly returned a medal to the Russian embassy in Washington because he believes the two sides can hold it together in space.
Two countries that have not been on the most friendly of terms can still work peacefully. The International Space Station is there. Kelly said that we need to fight to keep it.
The European, Japanese and Canadian space agencies want to keep the space station running until 2030. The Russians did not commit beyond the original end date.
The US and Russia are in charge of the outpost for 21 years. Americans had to pay tens of millions of dollars a seat to ride on Russian Soyuz.
The US and Russian space agencies are still working on a system in which a Russian would launch on a SpaceX capsule and an American would fly on the Soyuz, helping ensure a US and Russian station presence at all times.
Vande Hei, a retired army colonel, and Pyotr Dubrov, a Russian, moved into the International Space Station last April. He and Dubrov stayed twice as long as usual to accommodate a Russian film crew.
Vande Hei acknowledged that he was avoiding conversations with Dubrov and Shkaplerov, their Russian commanders, as the situation 260 miles below intensified last month. There are three more Russians going to blast off on Friday.
We haven't talked about that much. Vande Hei told an interviewer that they weren't sure if they wanted to go there.
It would be a sad day for international operations if we can't continue to operate peacefully in space.
A group of people are going to the space station at the end of March. In April, four astronauts will be delivered by the company before they return in November.
There is no speculation on whether a seat could be made available for Vande Hei. They say a small team and a Nasa plane will fly him back to Houston.
It was a difficult situation for Heidemarie, whose father was born in Ukraine.
We are sanctioning Russia. Companies are not doing business in Russia. She said that the US government is still doing business with the Russians.
The flags of other countries were covered on a Soyuz rocket that was about to be launched earlier this month. The launch was called off after the customer, London-based OneWeb, refused his demands that the satellites not be used for military purposes.
The European Space Agency is in crisis. The project was on track for a September liftoff after missing a 2020 launch deadline. The next chance for Earth and Mars to be aligned will most likely be in 2024. The French-run launch site in South America has been pulled out of service by Russia.
The space station was put on alert for days after a Russian anti-satellite missile test added debris to the Earth.
Jeffrey Manber helped forge US and Russian ties in the 1990s. The space station is one of the last holdouts of collaboration.
There is no going back if the partnership is ended and the result is a premature ending of the program.
John Logsdon, a professor at George Washington University, expects the end of large-scale space cooperation between Russia and the west.
The current situation will probably accelerate the move of Russia toward China.
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