NASA rebukes Russian use of space station for propaganda purposes [Updated]

Enlarge / Cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev, and Sergey Korsakov pose with a flag of the Luhansk People's Republic on the International Space Station.

Update on July 7, 6:30 pm ET: Three days after Russian cosmonauts displayed anti-Ukraine flags on the International Space Station, NASA issued a statement blasting this activity:

"NASA strongly rebukes Russia using the International Space Station for political purposes to support its war against Ukraine, which is fundamentally inconsistent with the station's primary function among the 15 international participating countries to advance science and develop technology for peaceful purposes."

It is not immediately clear whether this will affect ongoing negotiations for a seat swap in September when a Russian cosmonaut is due to fly on a NASA mission to the space station, and a NASA astronaut is due to fly on a Russian Soyuz vehicle.

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