What future is there for Russia’s foreign science collaborations?

ONE NON-HUMAN casualty of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine seems likely to be at least some of its scientific collaborations with other countries, starting with those involving Roscosmos, its state-owned space corporation. On February 25th Josef Aschbacher, head of the European Space Agency (ESA), tweeted that all partnerships between his organisation and Roscosmos would continue—especially the second part of a mission called ExoMars, which is scheduled to blast off in September from Baikonur Cosmodrome, a site technically in Kazakhstan, but leased to Russia. That aspiration lasted until February 28th, when ESA put out a statement which said, “Regarding the ExoMars programme continuation, the sanctions and the wider context make a launch in 2022 very unlikely.”