International tensions in respect of outer space are beginning to add up. Russia has recently said it will stop cooperating with the European, American, and Canadian space agencies when it comes to the International Space Station — and that might be just the start.

“To be friends in space, we must be friends on Earth,” says director general of Russia’s space agency, Dmitry Rogozin, in an exchange with Chinese state media. “Russia and China are friends on Earth.”

In November, Russia tested anti-satellite technology that destroyed one of its own satellites and created extensive space debris. The test sparked international fury over space junk, which could ostensibly cause cascading collisions capable of creating enough junk to make lower earth orbit unusable.

That phenomenon is known as the Kessler Syndrome, a version of which was imagined in 2013 in the movie “Gravity.” Moscow’s recklessness also menaced the ISS. Could the timing — months before Russia invaded Ukraine — have been deliberate?


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