Russia will not change its mind on the commitment to bring home NASA’s Mark Vande Hei from the International Space Station in a Russian spacecraft after claims emerged Russia would leave the U.S. astronaut stranded due to Washington’s sanctions.
“I can tell you for sure: Mark is coming home on that Soyuz,” Joel Montalbano, the manager of NASA’s ISS program said: “We are in communication with our Russian colleagues; there’s no fuzz on that.”
Mark and two Russian cosmonauts are scheduled to return from their mission on March 30. However, there has been fears whether the American would be abandoned in retaliation to harsh sanctions hit on Russia.
