After the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Western sanctions that followed, Dmitry Rogozin, former head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, signaled a looming end to the U.S.-Russia space partnership. "If you block cooperation with us," he tweeted in February, "who will save the ISS [International Space Station] from an uncontrolled deorbit and fall into the United States or Europe?" Elon Musk answered that call, replying with the SpaceX logo.
Private vessels can in fact do the job of Russia's Soyuz rockets. Terrestrial skirmishes no longer have to jeopardize cosmic exploration when companies like SpaceX can take astronauts to the ISS.
