By Steve Gorman

(Reuters] -Three Russian cosmonauts have safely reached the International Space Station (ISS). They docked with their Soyuz capsules to continue a shared Russian-U.S. orbital presence for 20 years despite tensions about Russia’s invasion in Ukraine.

It took place three hours 10 minutes after Soyuz, the spacecraft that carried the new cosmonaut crew to rendezvous in Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Russia.

According to NASA, the docking was confirmed at 1913 GMT (13:13 Eastern Time) and occurred while Soyuz space station and Soyuz were approximately 250 miles (420km) above eastern Kazakhstan.

Oleg Artemyev, Soyuz Commander, led the team. He was joined by Sergey Korsakov and Denis Matveev, two rookie spaceflight pilots. The mission, which was scheduled to take place over six months, is set to be a scientific one. NASA TV and the U.S. Space Agency’s website broadcasted live the launch.

NASA estimated that the docking would take two hours to allow the crew to carry out standard leak test and pressurize space station passageway before three cosmonauts could open hatches at the ISS.

These astronauts will be joining the current crew of seven to take over for three other crewmembers, cosmonauts Pyotr dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov as well as Mark Vande Hei from NASA.

Vande Hei with his fellow astronauts, will have completed a NASA record breaking 355-day orbital time.

Three NASA astronauts, Raja Chari, Kayla Barron and Tom Marshburn – all of NASA – are still aboard the ISS until the next rotation a few months later. Matthias Maurer from the European Space Agency is also onboard.

The four astronauts arrived aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon craft, launched in November from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They will be spending six months in orbit.

The research platform was launched in 1998 and has been in continuous use since then. It is currently managed by an U.S.-Russian partnership that includes Canada, Japan, 11 European countries, as well as Canada.

COLABORATION TEST

As a result of Russia’s incursion in Ukraine last month, the U.S. and Russian collaboration in space has been under threat.

U.S. President Joe Biden imposed high-tech export bans on Moscow as part of U.S. sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government. He said they were intended to “degrade” Russia’s aerospace industry and its space program.

Dmitry Rogozin was then the director-general at Roscosmos Russian space agency. He suggested that the U.S. sanctions could cause the “destroying” of ISS teamwork as well as the possibility of the space station falling from orbit.

Rogozin responded a week later by saying Russia would no longer supply or service Russian-made rocket engines for two U.S. NASA suppliers. This suggested that U.S. astronauts might use “broomsticks” to reach orbit.

About the same time Russia also announced it was ceasing joint ISS research and Germany, and forced Baikonur’s 11-hour cancellation for a British satellite launch.

Roscosmos’ chief said that Russia had suspended its cooperation at European Spaceport, French Guiana.

In part, the space station was created from an initiative of foreign policy to enhance American-Russian relations after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Rogozin’s actions in recent weeks have caused some people within the U.S. aerospace industry to reconsider the NASA-Roscosmos alliance.

Ann Kapusta (executive director) of the Space Frontier Foundation, a non-profit space advocacy organization, stated to Reuters that the United States must end their ISS collaborations with Russia in a recent statement.

Kapusta is a NASA ISS Research Operations Lead. He stated that Rogozin’s toxic behavior “shows there are no boundaries between Roscosmos & Putin’s War Machine” and that Russia should not be trusted with space safety.

NASA officials for their part stated that the U.S. ISS crew was aware of Earth events but were still working professionally together and that there had been no disruption to space station operations by geopolitical tensions.

NASA Chief Bill Nelson addressed the 60,000 U.S. employees during a video “townhall” Monday. He said that NASA continues to work with all its international partners, including State Space Corporation Roscosmos for “continuing safe operations” at the space station.