Placing nuclear weapons in space is a crime, and if the United States takes this step, an adequate response will follow from Russia. This was stated by the general director of the state corporation "Roscosmos" Dmitry Rogozin in an interview with " Gazeta.<url>", published on August 29.
"We will find an adequate answer. What it will be — a question for the Ministry of Defense and the Aerospace Forces (Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation. - Ed.). They will definitely find the answer, " he answered the question about how the Russian Federation will react to the removal of US nuclear weapons into outer space.
Rogozin suggested that nuclear weapons could be launched into space under the pretext of a beautiful idea. As an example, he cited the proposal of the founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk, about terraforming Mars with a large number of nuclear bombs.
"The permanent basing of nuclear weapons and an attack with their help from space reduce the reaction rate of a possible victim country to such an attack, which means that they increase the risk of a global defeat of this country. Therefore, I believe that we need to do everything possible to make those international agreements that already exist in this regard work, "the general director of Roscosmos summed up.
Also in an interview, Rogozin said that Russia is ready to repel a strike in space. He suggested that future wars could begin in outer space, and in this case the conflict would begin with the destruction of the enemy's orbital grouping.
On August 25, the head of NASA, Bill Nelson, said that regardless of the political differences in relations between Moscow and the West, the Russian side could always "come to a common denominator" with Western partners on the part of outer space. He also positively assessed the interaction of NASA with Russia, expressing hope for the continuation and improvement of work in this direction.
In December 2020, the United States announced that space was becoming a potential arena for military operations between the States and their opponents, so Washington should be ready to repel aggression in space. At the same time, Moscow has repeatedly called the militarization of outer space unacceptable.
