Following Germany's decision to suspend cooperating with Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, the Russian-German Spektrum-Röntgen-Gamma space observatory was put into safe mode.

According to a report from Deutsche Welle (DW), Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, has said that the telescope will be turned back on against Germany's desires.

Russia Wants to Hijack German Telescope

Dmitry Rogozin, the outspoken head of Roscosmos, is planning to seize control of the telescope.

"I gave instructions to start work on restoring the operation of the German telescope in the Spektr-RG system, so it works together with the Russian telescope," Rogozin said on Russian state TV (per DW).

"Despite Germany's demand to shut down one of the two telescopes at Spektr-RG, Russian specialists insist on continuing its work," he added. 

Roscosmos, according to Rogozin, will make important decisions soon.

According to Deutsche Welle, German officials warn that turning on eROSITA without the assistance of the MPE (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), which built it, might result in damage.

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Rogozin's rage grew as he stated that the individuals who decided to shut down the telescope "don't have the moral right" to interrupt this study for humanity simply because their pro-fascist sentiments are similar to those of our adversaries.

About This German Telescope

Gizmodo said Spektr-RG is now 932,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth in a halo orbit. The joint 7.5-year mission's scientific phase began in October 2019.

According to the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, the eROSITA telescope is now conducting an all-sky survey in which it is scanning the cosmos in the medium X-ray range "with remarkable spectral and angular precision."

The gadget comprises seven mirror modules, each with 54 nested mirror shells that contribute to the telescope's exceptional sensitivity.

The eROSITA project utilizes the telescope to map out the universe's large-scale structure, find veiled black holes in neighboring galaxies, and investigate the physics of X-ray sources, including young stars, supernova remnants, and X-ray binaries.

Futurism said a Russian Proton rocket launched the Russian-built Spektr-RG spacecraft three years ago. It holds the ART-XC instrument, a Russian high-energy X-ray telescope, and the eROSITA instrument, an X-ray observatory developed by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Germany.

Reactions Over Reactivating eROSITA

Lev Zeleny, scientific head of the Russian Academy of Science's Space Research Institute, slammed the decision to reactivate eROSITA.

Russia's state-run Gazeta, citing Zeleny, said all scientists "strongly object" to this proposal because of both political and technological reasons.

Zeleny added that it's unclear whether Russian astronomers will really find out how to utilize eROSITA or whether foreign journals would publish any scientific conclusions that may emerge from the move.

Russian news agency Interfax pointed out that the scientific supervisor of the Spektr-RG project, Rashid Sunyaev, is afraid that Russian scientists may accidentally harm Germany's telescope.

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