European Space Agency halts cooperation with Russia's lunar missions

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The European Space Agency ended cooperation with Russia on Wednesday on three missions to the moon.

The ESA announced that it would halt "cooperative activities" on Luna-25, 26 and 27, which are a series of Russian lunar missions that the agency had planned to test new equipment and technology.

The European Space Agency had earlier canceled collaboration with Russia on ExoMars, which was a plan to land a rover on Mars to drill into the soil.

"As with ExoMars, the Russian aggression against Ukraine and the resulting sanctions put in place represent a fundamental change of circumstances and make it impossible for ESA to implement the planned lunar cooperation," the ESA said in a statement. 

The ESA is now looking for other partners to test the technology, with some having already been found. Equipment including a lunar drill originally planned for Luna-27 will now be launched on a NASA-led mission instead. 

The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, had announced on February 26 that its website came under a cyberattack, and on the eve of that day, the agency withdrew its experts from the Kourou space station and suspended the launch of Soyuz missiles in response to European Union sanctions.

Moreover, the Russian space agency Roscosmos had suspended cooperation with Europe on launches from the Kourou cosmodrome and has recalled its staff from French Guiana, according to Dmitry Rogozin, the agency's head.

The US and its allies had rolled out comprehensive sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine, which included restrictions on the Russian central bank, export control measures, SWIFT cutoff for select banks, and closure of airspace to all Russian flights. Many of their companies have suspended their Russian operations.

The sanctions also included personal sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, among many other senior officials.