COLORADO SPRINGS (Sputnik) — Battiston is the chair of General Physics at the University of Trento and is a member of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the governmental committee advising Italy’s Minister of Research.
"Civil and peaceful space activities are not hit by [sanctions] in a significant manner," Battiston stated on Tuesday in an exclusive interview at the Space Symposium conference in Colorado Springs.
Battiston explained that economic sanctions do not apply in the area of Italian-Russian space cooperation and should not be imposed whatsoever.
"It would be a disaster if this would change the way we do cooperation in civilian applications," Battiston said.
Europe, Russia Space Cooperation ‘Excellent,’ Unaffected by Sanctions
Joint space exploration efforts by Russia and the European Union remain on track, with no impact from Western sanctions against Moscow, European Space Agency Director-Gener"The cooperation between the European Space Agency and Roscosmos is excellent," Woerner said on Tuesday, using an abbreviation for the Russian Federal Space Agency.
Asked whether work had been affected by Western sanctions against Russia, Woerner replied: "No. In relation to Roscosmos I don’t feel anything."
Woerner cited Europe’s ExoMars mission as one example of ongoing work with Russia.
"We are continuing the cooperation also with ExoMars. We are flying together to Mars so it’s working perfectly."
The ExoMars satellite — with an attached spacecraft that will attempt to land on Mars’ rocky surface — was launched last month on a Russian-made Proton rocket from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.al Jan Woerner told Sputnik.
