Nasa astronaut seemingly mocks Russia over the small size of its rockets

Andrew Griffin
Friday 11 March 2022 11:28 EST
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Space Launch System
Space Launch System (Nasa/AFP via Getty)

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A Nasa astronaut, Scott Kelly, has seemingly mocked Russia over the small size of its rockets.

Kelly – an accomplished astronaut and the US record holder for the longest time spent in space – has been posting regular messages of support for Ukraine after it was invaded by Russia. Many of those tweets have been written in Russia, which Kelly is fluent in after training at the country’s Star City facility.

Those tweets have led to him being locked in an ongoing argument with Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia’s space agency.

The two began to spar after Roscosmos shared a video in that seemed to show two Russian cosmonauts leaving behind Nasa astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who is set to leave with them when they come back to Earth on 30 March. That followed messages from Rogozin in which he appeared to suggest that Russia could respond to sanctions by cutting support for the International Space Station.

After a back-and-forth, Kelly posted a tweet in which he pointed to the vast size difference in the two space agencies’ rockets, comparing the US’ Space Launch System with Roscosmos’s Soyuz.

Rogozin has been sparring with a number of US space experts in recent days – with Elon Musk mocking his remark that without Russian rockets, Nasa astronauts would have to fly on “broomsticks”. Kelly’s tweet appeared to be part of that ongoing mockery.

But the SLS rocket is still under development and is yet to fly any humans. The Soyuz has however carried astronauts from European space agencies as well as Nasa – which is necessary as the US has long been unable to launch astronauts from its own soil.

Scott Manley, a popular science YouTuber, also pointed out that the smaller Russian Soyuz also has a smaller cost.

“To be fair you can buy 50 Soyuz for one SLS launch,” he wrote. “But I’m sure it’s worth it for the extra legroom.”

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