rogozin: Russia space chief says 500-tonne structure of ISS ‘could drop on India’ | India News – Times of India

BENGALURU: Responding to US’ sanctions announcement made against Russia in reaction to the latter’s invasion of Ukraine, Dimitry Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, posted a series of ‘retaliatory’ tweets one of which said there was also a “chance” of a 500-tonne structure of the International Space Station (ISS) “dropping on India”.
Rogozin’s tweets, among other things said: “If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from an uncontrolled deorbit and fall into the United States or Europe?”
“…There is also the option /chance of dropping a 500-ton structure to India and China. Do you want to threaten them with such a prospect? The ISS does not fly over Russia, so all the risks are yours. Are you ready for them?” the translation of the following tweet read.

However, in the context of the tweet, the Russian space chief is likely to have meant there was a “chance” of it dropping on India and China.
The ISS, built by the US, Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan, has been an example of non-partisan cooperation between countries’ space programmes, and has hosted more than 200 people, including from countries that did not build it.
Pointing to US President Joe Biden‘s statment that their sanctions would affect the Russian space programme, Rogozin tweeted: “…OK. It remains to find out the details: 1. Do you want to block our access to radiation-resistant space microelectronics? So you already did it quite officially in 2014. As you noticed, we, nevertheless, continue to make our own spacecraft. And we will do them by expanding the production of the necessary components and devices at home. 2. Do you want to ban all countries from launching their spacecraft on the most reliable Russian rockets in the world?”
He also spoke of how the US was “already planning to destroy the world market of space competition.”