An American astronaut who grew up in the Twin Cities is still scheduled to leave the international space station and land on earth on March 30th.
He would come home in a Russian spacecraft, but Russia's invasion of Ukraine has complicated matters, and there at first appeared to be threats of leaving Mark Vande Hei in space.
Officials with Russia's space program have said a video message posted on Twitter, supposedly in reaction to sanctions against Russia, was only a joke.
"Right now, those preparations are continuing," Steven Clark of Spaceflightnow.com told WCCO's Steve Thomson.
Vande Hei graduated from Benilde-Saint Margaret's High School and Saint John's University.
"There are things that NASA and their partner, SpaceX, could have in their back pocket to bring him back in a contingency situation if the Russians either don't want to bring him back or the situation deescalates and NASA maybe doesn't feel comfortable bringing him back on a Russian spacecraft," Clark said.
Clark said social media posts from Russian space leaders may be making things more tense than they should be, and there are reports that the Russian Federal Space Agency said messages about stranding the American were only a joke.
"A video seemed to be in jest, but these tweets certainly don't seem to be deescalating the situation," said Clark. "This is serious business, it's life or death. Spaceflight is certainly a risky endeavor."
Vande Hei and two Russian cosmonauts, Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov and Commander Anton Shkaplerov, blasted off into space last April 9.
When they return, the crew would have spent 355 days orbiting the earth.
They are scheduled to come home on a Soyuz MS-19 crew ship.