While NASA’s Administrator Bolden may have been a little too upbeat about the Ukrainian crisis’ effect on US/Russian cooperation in space – especially in respect to the International Space Station (ISS), as NASA, under the apparent direction from the US President, has now formally announced that most non-ISS space cooperation has been suspended. The formal statement is below:
Statement regarding suspension of some NASA activities with Russian Government representatives:Given Russia’s ongoing violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, NASA is suspending the majority of its ongoing engagements with the Russian Federation. NASA and Roscosmos will, however, continue to work together to maintain safe and continuous operation of the International Space Station. NASA is laser focused on a plan to return human spaceflight launches to American soil, and end our reliance on Russia to get into space. This has been a top priority of the Obama Administration’s for the past five years, and had our plan been fully funded, we would have returned American human spaceflight launches – and the jobs they support – back to the United States next year. With the reduced level of funding approved by Congress, we’re now looking at launching from U.S. soil in 2017. The choice here is between fully funding the plan to bring space launches back to America or continuing to send millions of dollars to the Russians. It’s that simple. The Obama Administration chooses to invest in America – and we are hopeful that Congress will do the same.
Comment: Initial indications are that the European Space Agency (ESA) will not be following NASA in cutting most non-ISS space cooperation.
