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NASA astronaut recounts being in space with Russian cosmonauts as war in Ukraine began

27 April 2022 06:13 (UTC +04:00)

Mark Vande Hei, a NASA astronaut who was on the International Space Station with Russian cosmonauts when the war in Ukraine began, described his experience with CNN's Erin Burnett, APA reports citing CNN.

Vande Hei returned to Earth last month with two Russian cosmonauts on a Soviet-era spacecraft after spending a record-breaking 355 days in space.

"The world is so beautiful and it's awe-inspiring to look down at the Earth but it's also extremely sad to recognize that there's a lot of suffering that's happening and personally I think it's a very, very avoidable suffering," Vande Hei said.

He continued, "At the same time I felt a strong sense of honor that I was able to participate in a program that, I think, helps provide a path to having the peace we so desperately need in the future because those paths always require some conversations between people who trust each other and I think that's what the space program is providing and hopefully we will continue to provide no matter what type of international conflicts we run into."

US Vice President Kamala Harris congratulated the astronaut for his stay in space in a phone call on April 6.

"I hope you know and feel that our nation, our planet, is so thankful to you for your years of dedicated service certainly to our country," Harris said. "Welcome home."

More background: The dynamic between the US and Russia changed quite drastically on Earth from when Vande Hei first launched in April 2021 to the space station. Tensions between the US and Russia turned frosty as the Russians were preparing for, and eventually launched, an invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.

Ahead of Vande Hei's return, there were brief concerns that the Russians would abandon the astronaut in space, after Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin shared a heavily edited video showing two Russian cosmonauts floating inside the space station waving goodbye to Vande Hei. NASA has repeatedly reaffirmed that it continues to work closely with Russian space agency Roscosmos.