Virgin Galactic Astronaut Says Trust Built by US, Russia on ISS Eroding

WASHINGTON, June 16 (Sputnik) - Virgin Galactic future astronaut and Yuri's Night co-creator Loretta Whitesides told Sputnik that the trust and cooperation built by Russia and the United States on the International Space Station (ISS) is eroding.

"I am very saddened that the trust and cooperation that we built working together on the International Space Station is eroding," Whitesides stated. "Trust and cooperation are critical in space where everything is so urgently life-threatening."

Whitesides also said the same problem is encountered on "spaceship Earth" and ways must be found to build trust and cooperation to crew this spaceship together as well.

"It's bigger and sturdier, but as we have seen, still fragile and in need of a lot of care to keep working reliably and safely. It is more urgent than ever that we think about how to make the whole planet work for as many people as possible as quickly as possible. We are all connected," she said.

Whitesides spoke with Sputnik on the anniversary of the world's first woman cosmonaut traveling to space, Valentina Tereshkova, on June 16, 1963. In addition, June 18 marks the anniversary of the flight by Sally Ride, the first US woman astronaut to travel to space aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1983.

"I personally love that their flights were 20 years and two days apart. I think this anniversary is very important to celebrate the accomplishments of women in space," she said.

Whitesides pointed out that the Smithsonian Institution has launched a new initiative called Sally's Night, inspired by Yuri's Night.

"They are partnering with the Washington, DC Nationals baseball team to do an event at their Sunday, June 18th game that will reach thousands of people to honor Dr. Sally Ride," she said. "Many of the Smithsonian partner institutions around the United States are also organizing their own events."

In April, Yuri’s Night was held across the world, including in the United States, to celebrate the first man in space - Yuri Gagarin.

"I am very proud of the Yuri's Night events this year. It is great to see more people learning about it and it is growing all the time," Whitesides said.

This year, Disney has agreed to make their Miles from Tomorrowland episode about Yuri's Night available for free on YouTube. Whitesides said this is a great way to share Yuri's Night with the next generation.

"We also had Dr. Jessica Watkins, the first African American woman to do a long duration flight on the ISS, at our Los Angeles event. She was amazing. We are excited that she has a chance to be one of the first women to walk on the Moon as well," she said.

Whitesides pointed out that she started Yuri’s Night celebration activities in 2001 on the 40th anniversary of Gagarin's flight and the 20th anniversary of the first space shuttle flight.

"I wanted to show that the former super power rivals share a space anniversary and that we can use the power of space to bring us together," she said. "I learned about this amazing coincidence (that both countries have major space anniversaries on April 12) thanks to an exhibition of Soviet Space artifacts that General Klimuk brought to Houston in 1997. I was there and was inspired by that exhibition to start Yuri's Night."

Whitesides also said that she plans to do a suborbital flight with Virgin Galactic on its 6th commercial flight.

"I am hoping that will be sometime in 2024," she said. "It is important to me because I think we can use the power and perspective of space to help bring the world together and help us to be a better crew of spaceship Earth."

Tereshkova flew on a Vostok 6 spacecraft and spent almost three days in space; she still is the only woman to have been on a solo mission in space.

Anna Kikina is currently the only active female cosmonaut in the Russian space team. Kikina made her first flight to the ISS from October 5, 2022 to March 12, 2023, departing and returning from there aboard the US Crew Dragon spacecraft.

A total of six women have been in space in the history of Russia and the former Soviet Union.