On Sunday, the Ukrainian army fired at least four American-made Army Tactical Missile System precision rockets at NIP-16. Fires raged at the site through the night, and Planet satellite imagery from Monday seems to depict blast marks on the ground at the sprawling base.

Scientists surely would cringe at any damage to NIP-16 and its suite of hard-to-replace scientific instruments. Thousands of Soviet naval conscripts built the installation at a time when governments were pouring massive resources into space exploration.