Nasa asks astronauts to dial back criticism of Russia

Former Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly has said he will back off his Twitter feud with Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, following a request from US officials.

A former US navy pilot, Capt Kelly took to social media following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to denounce the war, often in fluent Russian.

He also traded barbs with the bellicose Mr Rogozin, who himself threatened to pull Russia out of the International Space Station program and allow the station to lose altitude. Russia is responsible for maintaining the station’s orbit.

But in an email leaked to US news network CNN and addressed to all former US astronauts, Nasa officials asked Capt Kelly and his colleagues to measure their words when addressing Russian officials.

“As Americans, each of us enjoys freedom of speech and you are all empowered to speak your mind," CNN reports the email read.

“However, please know that as former NASA astronauts, your words carry additional weight and attacking our Russian partners is damaging to our current mission.”

The ISS is possibly the only point of cooperation left between Roscosmos and its Western counterparts, Nasa and the European Space Agency.

While both ESA and Nasa stated aspirations to continue working with Roscosmos and numerous space-related projects, Russia began pulling back in retaliation for western sanctions laid on Moscow over its war in Ukraine.

Roscosmos has halted the sale of rocket engines to the US, stopped launches and pulled staff from the European spaceport in French Guiana, and canceled commercial space launches for western clients such as satellite internet company OneWeb. ESA officials have said the joint ESA-Roscosmos Mars mission, ExoMars, once scheduled for 2022 is now unlikely.

Both Nasa and Roscosmos have confirmed, however, that Nasa astronaut Mark Vande Hei will return home on 30 March as scheduled aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

But Mr Rogozin once hinted that Roscosmos might leave Mr Vande Hei behind, sharing a video showing Russian cosmonauts waving goodbye to the US astronaut, still on the ISS.

It was that video, Capt Kelly told CNN, that led him to begin criticising Mr Rogozin and Roscosmos directly on Twitter, an exchange that ultimately led to Mr Rogozin telling Capt Kelly to “shut up” and then blocking the astronaut on the social media site.

In an interview with CNN, Capt Kelly said he would honor Nasa’s wishes when it came to further criticism of Russian officials.

"Yes, I saw the email and backed off Rogozin. I didn’t have to, but I respect Nasa, Nasa’s position and the (official) that sent it," Capt Kelly said in a CNN interview, but noted he would continue to post tweets in Russian opposing the war in Ukraine.

Accurate reporting on the war in Ukraine has been heavily curtailed in Russia itself, with many social media sites like Twitter officially blocked and a new law threatening up to 15 years in prison for those criticizing the war.

A Russian journalist was recently fined 30,000 Rubles, or about £200, for speaking against the war in a live broadcast.