Russian scientists think this is a bad strategy and disagree with Roscosmos chairman Dmitry Rogozin.

After being barred from participating in a cooperative X-ray telescope project with Germany in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Space Agency has stated it will confiscate a German telescope mounted on a Russian-built spacecraft.

Launched in 2019, the Spektrum-Rontgen-Gamma (SRG) space observatory is an X-ray telescope designed to study distant galaxies and supermassive black holes.

Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, collaborated on the project alongside DLR, the German space agency. The spacecraft was built and launched by Roscosmos, while the eROSITA primary observational telescope was created by DLR and Germany’s Max Planck Institute.

In February, the Max Planck Institute, the German inventor of the eROSITA telescope, activated the instrument’s sleep mode in response to Russia’s aggressive invasion of Ukraine.

According to Deutsche Welle, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin, a close supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was dissatisfied with the move and has given orders to restore telescope operations without Germany’s approval.

“I have been instructed to begin work on restoring the operation of the German telescope in the Spektr-RG system so that it will work in tandem with the Russian telescope,” Rogozin said.

“Despite Germany’s demand to close one of the two telescopes at Spektr-RG, Russian specialists insist on continuing its work. Roscosmos will make the relevant decisions in the near future .”

“They — the people who made the decision to close the telescope — have no moral right to stop this search for humanity just because their pro-fascist views are close to our enemies.”

According to Deutsche Welle, even Russian scientists believe this is a bad plan and disagree with Rogozin’s activities, because if Roscosmos succeeds in hijacking the telescope, they risk harming the delicate components within.

“Our institute, all scientists, strongly object to this proposal,” said Lev Zeleny, scientific director of the Russian Academy of Science’s Space Research Institute, in a statement.

“This is not a Russian device, I don’t presume to judge how realistic this whole epic (with inclusion) is, I don’t know if our specialists have processing codes. But even if they do, it will be simply impossible to publish these data — they will not be accepted, not a single magazine will do the right thing,” Zeleny went on to say.

Image Credit: Getty

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