--- title: "Russian Cosmonauts Board Space Station Wearing Colors of Ukraine Flag" description: "Three Russian cosmonauts boarded the International Space Station wearing blue and yellow space suits that looked like the colors of the Ukraine flag." date: "2022-03-19" modified: "2022-03-19" authors: - name: "Lonnie Lee Hood" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/ahood" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/russian-cosmonauts-iss-ukraine" categories: - "Off-World" - "Space" tags: - "international space station" - "Russia" - "the digest" - "ukraine" --- # Russian Cosmonauts Board Space Station Wearing Colors of Ukraine Flag ![Three Russian cosmonauts boarded the International Space Station wearing blue and yellow space suits that looked like the colors of the Ukraine flag.]() *\Image: The Mirror / Twitter\* ## Blue and Yellow Is it a protest? Or an homage to the cosmonauts' alma mater? Hard to say, but one thing's for sure — the bright yellow and blue space suits three Russian cosmonauts wore to board the International Space Station yesterday were hard to miss, especially compared to the [drab colors worn by the station's existing crew](). The crew launched early Friday in a Soyuz spacecraft and arrived at the ISS hours later. Video of the team [entering the station show them]() wearing the colorful new suits, which look suspiciously similar to the colors of the Ukraine flag. As Russia's [violent invasion of the country drives even more civilian casualties](), some experts suspect the cosmonauts were showing support for the Ukrainian people — although others caution against rushing to judgment in a complex and eyebrow-raising situation. Eric Berger, senior space editor at *Ars Technica*, [tweeted yesterday]() that it's hard to say exactly who planned the fashion choice, but retweeted a translated statement from another space exploration fan who said a member of the crew riffed that there was simply too much yellow fabric in the warehouse that needed to be used. Berger said that could be a clever quip to distract from the political reality. https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1504945365543526400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1504945365543526400%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2022%2F03%2F18%2Fscience%2Frussian-astronauts-yellow-blue-flight-suits-ukraine.html ## Back to School Not everyone is convinced the Russians wanted to support Ukraine. Others [hypothesize the suits could be paying respect]() to [Bauman Moscow State Technical University](). In a tweet yesterday, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin celebrated the all-Russian crew who graduated from the college. "All of them are graduates of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University," [Rogozin said in an English translation]() provided by Google. You might've guessed already, but the university's colors are blue and yellow. It's completely possible that's what the team was referencing with their new suits — although it's worth noting that Berger, who's one of the media's top experts on international space relations, [pushed back against that theory](). https://twitter.com/Rogozin/status/1504703719140737029?s=20&t=xE4xz66nD59o0e_yg-ARUQ ## Star Wars The cosmonauts' stunt is admirable if it was indeed to support Ukraine, but if so they could be serious trouble or even danger. Rogozin has [threatened both the US and Europe with a violent ISS crash]() over the conflict, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has been [stifling anti-war demonstrations and arresting protestors](). If the cosmonauts went off script, it'd be a particular affront to Rogozin, who in yet another open-to-interpretation remark bragged earlier this week that the incoming crew [were in "fighting shape]()." For now, Berger is keeping an open mind for explanations. "With that said, orchestrating the fabrication of these flight suits, and getting them packed on board Soyuz during a late-load process, would have required a fair amount of traceable activity in Baikonur," he [wrote](). "Hopefully we can find out what really happened." **More on the European conflict:** [*Elite Ukrainian Drone Pilots are Reportedly Making All the Difference*]()