Terry Virts, who has spent 213 days in space and was the ISS commander in 2015, said the station had been plunged into a ‘dark nightmare’ following Putin’s Ukraine invasion
Real-life Star Wars have broken out after a former International Space Station commander accused Russian cosmonauts of siding with the ‘dark side’ and supporting Vladimir Putin’s ‘evil regime’.
Terry Virts, 57, an ex-US Air Force Top Gun pilot who has spent 213 days in space, claimed that the station – jointly manned by Russian and American astronauts – had been plunged into a ‘dark nightmare’ following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Launched in 1998, it served as a symbol of unity between the US and Russia post-Cold War, with astronauts from both superpowers working closely together in tight quarters, orbiting 250 miles above Earth.
However, Virts – who commanded the in-orbit base in 2015 after launching in a Russian rocket – is now urging the US Government to sever space ties with Putin after discovering that former comrades were supporting their autocratic president and even holding seats in his parliament.
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The retired NASA astronaut – a former Space Shuttle pilot – expressed his disappointment, saying that seeing “my former friends and crewmates sell their souls to Putin has been one of the saddest and most maddening experiences of my life”, reports the Daily Star.
He stated that cosmonauts he had worked with had transformed from “seemingly normal people” he had “considered friends” to “willing tools for evil”, lured by the promise of “fancy SUVs, posh flats in Moscow, cushy jobs for their children, and the promise of more spaceflights”.
Virts revealed that he and Russian cosmonaut Sasha Samokutayev were left in shock as they watched bombs rain down on Ukraine from the International Space Station (ISS) during Putin’s previous attack in 2015.
However, the astronaut he once considered an “old friend”, along with two other cosmonauts he had flown with, have since joined the Russian parliament as members of Putin’s party and “enthusiastically enabled” the war.
“These are men and women who know better,” he penned on The Next Move with Garry Kasparov – the news website of the former Russian chess world champion.
“They have lived in the West, trained with American and European astronauts, speak English, and have been sufficiently exposed to foreigners and non-Russian media to know that Putin’s lies are just that – lies.
“And yet they decided that fancy SUVs, bougie apartments in Moscow, plum jobs for their kids, and the promise of more spaceflights are worthwhile trade-offs for supporting an evil regime and an evil war.”
Virts, who famously tweeted a selfie of him making a Vulcan salute from the ISS as it flew over legendary Star Trek actor Leonard ‘Dr Spock’ Nimoy’s Boston birthplace, called on the US to cease cooperation with Russia in space.
He suggested that American astronauts should no longer fly in Russian capsules, Putin’s cosmonauts should be banned from NASA craft, joint science projects should be halted and all cooperation over the International Space Station should be cut to the “bare minimum” to keep it in orbit.
“Future space exploration should be pursued without Russia or any other blatantly authoritarian countries,” Virts has argued.
“This disengagement would be a small loss compared with the tremendous human loss in Ukraine. Ten years ago there were many Russian cosmonauts among my close circle of friends and colleagues.
“Now, I work closely with many Ukrainians fighting to defend their homeland. It is time for NASA and the US government to follow that same course.
“Our cosmic collaboration with Russia has proven a poor investment and the relationship is past its best-by date. Even some of our closest Russian partners – cosmonauts whom I and many other Americans trusted with their lives – have shown us their true colours.
“We should believe them.”
