Life In Space Goes On As Usual

On the ground, the United States and Russia have been at serious odds over the war in Iraq. There were initial disagreements over whether war were warranted, with old friends, President George W. Bush and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, disagreeing on the need to effect a "regime change" in Baghdad. There were veto threats from the Russians at the UN Security Council. More recently, there were accusations from Moscow that the United States had targeted a diplomatic convoy making its way from Baghdad to Damascus, Syria, as the Iraqi capitol fell.

The Iraq was has indeed strained relations between the two former superpower rivals on the ground. But not in space. The crew of the International Space Station (ISS) has two American astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut.

Serenely Above It All

"Of course, we are upset about the war in Iraq, but the relations amongst the crew have not worsened. We are working well and we have a good international crew," Russian Nikolai Budarin said Friday, during a communication session with the Earth. He also told the ground control that the astronauts tried to see what was going on in Iraq from orbit. "When we were flying over it, it was cloudy and visibility was poor. Nonetheless, we saw a lot of black smoke over Iraq. We did not see any military action as such on this territory," Budarin said.

FMI: www.spaceflight.nasa.gov