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Russia demands explanation over US snub to space chief (Guardian)

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This handout photo released by NASA shows New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, CO, with New Horizons team members as they enter the auditorium prior to a press conference after the team received confirmation from the New Horizons spacecraft that it has completed the flyby of Ultima Thule, Tuesday, January 1, 2019 at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. - A NASA spacecraft on Tuesday January 1st, 2019, flew past the most distant world ever studied by humankind, Ultima Thule, a frozen relic of the early solar system that could reveal how planets formed. (Photo by NASA/Joel Kowsky / NASA / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / NASA / JOEL KOWSKY" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS ---

Russia’s space agency on Saturday demanded an explanation after NASA put off a planned visit to the United States by Russia’s controversial space chief.

Dmitry Rogozin, a firebrand nationalist politician known for his anti-Western rhetoric, was set to visit the US in February but NASA said Friday that it was postponing his visit indefinitely.

Rogozin, appointed by President Vladimir Putin in May last year and previously a deputy prime minister, is blacklisted and under US sanctions over Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

Russia’s Roscosmos space agency said in a statement that “it expects official explanations of NASA’s position” and stressed that Rogozin’s visit was planned “in accordance with an invitation received earlier.”

It added a veiled warning that preparations for talks on cooperation with the US on the ISS programme and deep space exploration are “so far not suspended.” Read more

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