A video released in early March depicting Russian cosmonauts waving goodbye as they leave U.S. astronaut Mark Vande Hei behind on the International Space Station is simply a joke, according to Russian officials.
“The Roscosmos television studio jokingly demonstrated the possibility of Russia withdrawing from the ISS project—the undocking of the Russian segment of the station, without which the American part of the project cannot exist,” according to the translation of the video’s caption, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Though Russian state-run media claims Roscosmos released the video on the messenger app Telegram, its origin has not been independently verified.
Regardless, state media confirms that it will not in fact leave Vande Hei behind when the crew is due to return March 30, despite a Fox News report that claimed Roscosmos was thinking “with everything going on, just leave him up there.”
Russian gov't-controlled RIA Novosti @rianru posted a video on Telegram made by @Roscosmos where cosmonauts say goodbye to Mark Vande Hei on #ISS, depart, and then the Russian segment detaches from the rest of ISS. @Rogozin is clearly threatening the ISS program. #NASA #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/fj2coK1xR1
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) March 5, 2022
via joemiller
