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This week , news outletsreported that the head of Russia ’s Space Agency threaten to go away American spaceman Mark Vande Hei — the platter - holder for the long spacefaring — aboard theInternational Space Station(ISS ) rather than allowing him to return to Earth on a Russian spacecraft . It turn out that the terror is n’t true , Ars Technica reported .

Vande Hei began his commission on April 9 , 2021 , and is scheduled to return toEarthon March 30 , 2022 , mean he will have spend 355 straight days in Earth orbit , according to NASA . The program is for Vande Hei to put down in Kazakhstan along with two Russian cosmonauts , Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov and Commander Anton Shkaplerov , aboard the Soyuz MS-19 bunch ship , a Russian vas .

NASA astronaut and Expedition 66 Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei harvests plants growing for the Veggie PONDS experiment and collects samples for later analysis

NASA astronaut and Expedition 66 Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei harvests plants growing for the Veggie PONDS experiment and collects samples for later analysis. The space agriculture study explores growing crops in space to sustain crews on missions beyond low-Earth orbit.

However , after President Joe Biden plant new sanctions in answer to the Russian intrusion ofUkraine , several intelligence electric outlet reported that Dmitry Rogozin , the principal of Russia ’s Space Agency , threatened to abandon Vande Hei on the ISS . This claim stems from avideo brand Feb. 26 , which was share by a Kremlin - aligned publication , RIA Novosti , according to Ars Technica .

Roscosmos TV , the telly station of the Russian Federal Space Agency , allow footage for the TV but observe that the TV was a " joke , " Ars Technica reported . The same video recording also jokingly suggest that Russia might go so far as to detach its portion of the ISS from the American side of the outer space station , in addition to strand Vande Hei .

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On Friday ( March 11 ) , aNASAspokespersonassured The StarTribunethat " On March 30 , a Soyuz spacecraft will return as scheduled carrying NASA cosmonaut Mark Vande Hei and cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov back to Earth . "

And even if Rogozin ’s threat to go out Vande Hei on the station was licit — which it ’s not — American astronaut Raja Chari , Kayla Barron and Thomas Marshburn , as well as German astronaut Matthias Maurer are all on the ISS , too , Ars Technica reported . So in any case , Vande Hei would be able to catch another ride back to Earth .

in the beginning published on Live Science .

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