New US sanctions could affect American astronauts on ISS

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said today that fresh US sanctions against Moscow could compromise US astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).

"If their aim is to deliver a blow to Russia's rocket-building sector, then by default, they would be exposing their astronauts on the ISS," the Interfax news agency quoted Rogozin as saying in Crimea.

The ISS is a permanently staffed research laboratory that flies about 260 miles above Earth.