Fwd: NASA suspends relations with Russia space agency

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: April 3, 2014 9:46:50 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: NASA suspends relations with Russia space agency

 

NASA suspends relations with Russia space agency

NASA was ordered Wednesday to suspend all contact with the Russian space agency, except for operating the International Space Station.

By Gabrielle Levy   |   April 2, 2014 at 3:44 PM   |   

 

 

| License Photo

WASHINGTON, April 2 (UPI) -- The U.S. Government has suspended all contact between its space agency and the Russians' over the ongoing geopolitical crisis in Ukraine.

According to a NASA memo sent Wednesday by Associate Administrator Michael O'Brien, all contact between NASA and Roscosmos was indefinitely suspended, with the exception of activities related to operating the International Space Station.

As of last week, when two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut joined the current expedition, there are three Russians, two Americans and one Japanese astronaut aboard the space station.

Just last week, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said he had no fear that the Russian government would cut off American access to the space station, despite the Earth-bound crisis. While the U.S. has relied on Russia's launch vehicles to transport astronauts to space since NASA grounded the Space Shuttle program, Bolden said the Russians were just as dependent on the U.S. to run the station as the U.S. was on Russia's transportation abilities.

Still, members of Congress were clearly concerned that Russia wielded control of a critical piece of the U.S.'s ability to operate in space. Bolden hoped to leverage their concern in urging Congress to pay for the development of the Commercial Carrier program, which would be on target to launch astronauts from U.S. soil by 2017 if fully funded.

And Tuesday, Congress passed the final version of a bill that would send aid to Ukraine, including a $1 billion guaranteed loan, and implemented mild sanctions on Russia.

The full memo:

From: O'Brien, Michael F (HQ-TA000)
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2014 9:33 AM
To: [Deleted]
Cc: [Deleted]
Subject: Suspension of NASA contact with Russian entities

Dear Colleagues,

Given Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, until further notice, the U.S. Government has determined that all NASA contacts with Russian Government representatives are suspended, unless the activity has been specifically excepted. This suspension includes NASA travel to Russia and visits by Russian Government representatives to NASA facilities, bilateral meetings, email, and teleconferences or videoconferences. At the present time, only operational International Space Station activities have been excepted. In addition, multilateral meetings held outside of Russia that may include Russian participation are not precluded under the present guidance. If desired, our office will assist in communication with Russian entities regarding this suspension of activities. Specific questions regarding the implementation of this guidance can be directed to Ms. Meredith McKay, 202.358.1240 or meredith.mckay@nasa.gov, in our office.

We remain in close contact with the Department of State and other U.S. Government departments and agencies. If the situation changes, further guidance will be disseminated.

Obie

Michael F. O'Brien

Associate Administrator for International and Interagency Relations

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

 

 

© 2014 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

 

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NASA Severs Ties with Russia, Except for ISS

WASHINGTON, April 3 (RIA Novosti) - The US space agency NASA officially announced it has suspended some space-related contacts with Russia amid tensions over Ukraine, but said will continue working together on the International Space Station, where both US and Russian astronauts are currently living together.

While NASA and Roscosmos will seek to "maintain safe and continuous operation of the ISS," the majority of its ongoing engagements with Russian government officials will be ceased, the space agency said in a statement Wednesday, which comes nearly three weeks after Russia finalized its reunification with Crimea, formerly a Ukrainian autonomous republic.

"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," the agency said. Western powers have refused to recognize the results of the March 16 referendum in Crimea, which Russian President Vladimir Putin says was in full compliance with the UN charter and international law.

A Russian deputy premier in charge of the defense and space industry, Dmitry Rogozin, has mocked the move saying the space cooperation between Russia and NASA was limited to joint work on the ISS.

"NASA has halted cooperation with Roscosmos, except for work on the ISS. But our cooperation with NASA was only on ISS," Rogozin wrote in his Twitter microblog Thursday.

A Russian rocket last week delivered three astronauts, including American Steve Swanson, who are scheduled to stay in orbit for six months. The new crew is to conduct an extensive scientific program aboard the station, in addition to maintaining a space blog of their daily activities and overseeing the arrival of several resupply vehicles.

The Russian Soyuz rocket and spacecraft, widely considered the most reliable manned space launch system in history, are currently the only means of reaching the station following the retirement of the US space shuttle in 2011.

 The US pays Russia over $70 million for a single shuttle ride aboard the country's Soyuz rocket launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Plesetsk, northwestern Russia, and the Kuru space center, in French Guiana.

In a move to reduce its reliance on Russia to bring astronauts to space, NASA said it is "laser focused on a plan to return human spaceflight launches to American soil" in 2017, citing the reduced level of funding approved by Congress as a reason for postponing the plan.

 "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," the statement reads.

NASA said last month that the current crisis in Ukraine would not affect the longstanding civil space co-operation with Russia, which goes back decades. A number of NASA employees have condemned the move saying scientific cooperation should not be altered by earthly politics.

Tensions between Russia and the West rose after the ouster of pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February, followed by the rise to power of Ukrainian nationalist politicians in the new government in Kiev, which Moscow considers illegitimate.

The subsequent reunification of Crimea with Russia, sparked by deepening concerns over ultranationalist rhetoric from the new authorities in Kiev, triggered the deepest crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the end of Cold War.

 

© 2014 RIA Novosti

 

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OPINION: Freeze on Russia-NASA Space Cooperation to Have Global Backlash – Expert

OPINION: Freeze on Russia-NASA Space Cooperation to Have Global Backlash – Expert

© NASA

13:28 03/04/2014

 

MOSCOW, April 3 (RIA Novosti) - Washington's decision to freeze cooperation between the NASA space agency and its Russian counterpart on a slew of joint projects will hurt global space partnership but won't be the end of the Russian space program, Director of the Space Policy Institute Ivan Moiseyev told RIA Novosti Thursday.

NASA issued a statement saying it put most of its joint missions with Russia on hold indefinitely. The only exception is the "operational International Space Station activities," the agency's associate administrator Michael O'Brien said in a memo.

"The statement was way too harsh," Ivan Moiseyev told RIA Novosti. He warned NASA that its move would have a "rather significant" impact on space exploration projects globally.

"Modern space science is a global phenomenon that benefits all countries," Moiseyev noted. "It means that many large-scale projects require an international effort. A freeze on cooperation will spur a serious backlash against the international space program."

The space pundit added that, despite being something that Russia would never want for space science, this freeze was unlikely to have any catastrophic repercussions for its industry. Russia will simply have to adjust its projects to the new reality, he explained.

Russia's senior space official said earlier in an interview with RIA Novosti that Russia didn't depend much on the United States, as far as space industry goes.

This comes as the United States, European Union and their allies continue to ratchet up diplomatic pressure on Russia following its re-unification with the Russian-majority Crimea peninsula, which was taken over by Ukraine after the Soviet fall.

Measures include sanctions against Russian and Crimean officials and businesses, who had their foreign assets seized.

In a recent development, NATO member states suspended cooperation with Moscow allegedly until Russia changed its stand on the Ukrainian crisis, prompting the Russian Foreign Office to accuse the allies of trying to manhandle the country into accepting their viewpoint.

 

© 2014 RIA Novosti

 

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NASA cuts off most ties with Russia over Ukraine

Mark K. Matthews

5:11 p.m. EDT, April 2, 2014

WASHINGTON -- In a sign that the standoff over Ukraine continues to escalate, NASA on Wednesday moved to suspend nearly every tie it has with its Russian counterpart Roscosmos -- with the key exception of communications dealing with the International Space Station.

The move was revealed in an internal memo, dated Wednesday, that called on NASA officials to suspend all contacts with Russian officials, as well as travel to Russia and visits to NASA facilities by Russian scientists.

"Given Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, until further notice, the U.S. Government has determined that all NASA contacts with Russian Government representatives are suspended, unless the activity has been specifically excepted," noted the memo, which was sent by Michael O'Brien, NASA's Associate Administrator for International and Interagency Relations.

The move marks a sharp turnaround for NASA, where top officials have said for weeks that relations with Roscosmos have been unaffected by the crisis that began with Russia's annexation of Crimea, a former Ukrainian territory.

"Right now, everything is normal in our relationship with the Russians," said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden last month when the agency rolled out its 2015 budget proposal.

He said the agency had not taken steps -- at that point -- to find an alternate way to get its astronauts to the station.

Since NASA retired the space shuttle in 2011, the agency has paid Russia to ferry its astronauts to the outpost at cost of about $1.7 billion over five years. 

Copyright © 2014, Orlando Sentinel

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Bolden: Breakdown with Russia may stall deep-space plan

Ledyard King, BrevardCounty 5:25 p.m. EDT March 27, 2014

 

(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

 

WASHINGTON – NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. told a congressional panel Thursday that if Russia stops taking American astronauts to the International Space Station, he will recommend suspending work on deep-space programs that rely on the orbiting lab for important groundwork.

Responding to House members who raised the concern, Bolden said it's very doubtful Russia would suddenly bar astronauts from riding on its Soyuz rockets, even amid rising tensions between the two countries over Ukraine.

Such a move would likely shut down the station and force a halt to the Space Launch System deep-space rocket and Orion crew vehicle being developed to take astronauts to Mars in the 2030s, Bolden said. The space station will conduct medical tests and advance technology crucial to the success of the Mars mission.

"We're fooling everybody that we can go to deep space if the International Space Station is not there," Bolden told lawmakers on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. "If I can't get to low-Earth orbit, there is no exploration program."

The NASA administrator appeared before lawmakers to defend the Obama administration's $17.46 billion budget request for fiscal 2015, which begins Oct. 1.

The budget includes funding to continue NASA's top priorities: the deep-space rocket and Orion multi-purpose vehicle it will carry to Mars, the James Webb Space Telescope due for launch in 2018, and about $133 million to fund a trip to an asteroid by 2025 as part of a stepping-stone approach to the Red Planet.

NASA also is seeking $848 million for the Commercial Crew program — in which private aerospace companies are helping the agency develop a successor to the space shuttle — to meet a 2017 goal to resume sending astronauts to the space station from U.S. soil. That's $148 million more than the program received for fiscal 2014.

The companies are competing to transport crew to the space station in much the same way private firms competed to ferry cargo to the space station.

Congress has never given NASA its full funding request for the program since the Obama administration first asked for money several years ago. Lawmakers fear Commercial Crew takes money away from the deep-space program they often cite as their top priority.

That's forced the agency to push back the planned launch date — from 2015 to late 2017 — for its first crewed mission to the space station.

U.S. astronauts have had to rely on Russia for rides to the space station since the shuttle program ended with Atlantis' landing in July 2011. The Russians charge American taxpayers more than $70 million for each round trip under a contract between NASA and Roscosmos.

Not funding the full $848 million this time would almost certainly push that first flight into 2018 or later, forcing NASA to buy more seats from Russia, Bolden said.

"Budgets are about choices," he told lawmakers. "The choice here is between fully funding the request to bring space launches back to American soil or continue to send millions to the Russians. It's that simple."

Bolden doesn't believe Russia will deny America access to the shuttle, based on his conversations with his Russian counterparts, who he said want to continue the partnership. A Soyuz rocket carrying two Russians and astronaut Steve Swanson was scheduled to dock at the station Thursday night.

In addition, NASA handles communication and navigation for the orbiting lab, so not having Americans on board would essentially render it unusable for everyone, Bolden said.

Republican Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, a member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, told Bolden that President Barack Obama could have avoided the situation by extending the life of the shuttle. or at least keeping one for emergency transport.

The decision to retire the shuttles, which debuted in 1981, was made during the George W. Bush administration following the 2003 accident involving the Columbia shuttle.

Rep. Steve Palazzo, the Mississippi Republican who chairs the panel's Space Subcommittee, agreed it's undesirable to pay Russia more. But he also wants to use limited resources on a deep-space mission involving a lunar landing that he views as paramount to America's long-term national security.

"We have some serious budget constraints, not just dealing with NASA's budget but with all of our discretionary spending," he told Bolden "And we have to make sure that we have a presence in space. If not, those friends that aren't so friendly to us will have a presence."

Contact Ledyard King at lking@gannett.com; Twitter: @ledgeking

 

Copyright © 2014 www.floridatoday.com. All rights reserved. 

 

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Space station exempt from ban on NASA-Russia contact

04/02/2014 08:55 PM

 

Editor's note...

• Posted at 06:20 PM ET, 04/02/14: Space station exempt from new NASA policy blocking contact with Russian government
• Updated at 09:00 PM ET, 04/02/14: Adding NASA statement (insert17thgraf-nopickup)

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

NASA has been told to suspend contact with Russian government officials because of Russia's "ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," according to an agency memo circulated Wednesday. The International Space Station, which is jointly operated by NASA, Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and Canada, is exempt and not directly impacted by the new guidelines.

The memo apparently reflects a broad State Department directive to multiple federal agencies that have regular contact with the Russian government. In NASA's case, the space station represents the bulk of the agency's dealings with Russia and the exemption presumbly means business as usual.

But the space agency has multiple, less-visible cooperative efforts in space science, aeronautics and other areas, and the potential impacts on those remains to be seen.

"Apparently, this is happening in all federal agencies," said John Logsdon, professor emeritus of political science and international affairs at George Washington University. "So it's consistent with the across-government thing. It's civilian, it doesn't have anything to do with the RD-180 (a Russian engine used aboard Atlas 5 rockets) and ISS is unperturbed."

He said the restrictions mirror those already in place governing NASA's relationship, or lack thereof, with China.

"Personally, I think it invites retaliation," Logsdon said of the new Russian guidelines. "But the company line is it's not an escalation, and no retaliation is expected."

The memo was sent to NASA field centers Wednesday by Michael O'Brien, the agency's associate administrator for International and Interagency Relations.

"Given Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, until further notice, the U.S. Government has determined that all NASA contacts with Russian Government representatives are suspended, unless the activity has been specifically excepted," the memo says.

"This suspension includes NASA travel to Russia and visits by Russian Government representatives to NASA facilities, bilateral meetings, email and teleconferences or videoconferences."

The only exceptions are "operational International Space Station activities," the memo, posted on multiple web sites, continued. "In addition, multilateral meetings held outside of Russia that may include Russian participation are not precluded under the present guidance."

NASA has enjoyed a close relationship with Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, since the early 1990s when, in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse, Russia joined the International Space Station program.

The station is now virtually complete, at a cost to U.S. taxpayers of some $100 billion over the past three decades, and the Obama administration recently approved long-range plans to operate the outpost at least through 2024.

In its current form, the space station's operation requires close cooperation between all of the partner nations, but especially between NASA and Roscosmos and their various contractors. Both sides are mutually dependent and neither could operate the station on its own.

The Russian segment of the space station taps into the lab's U.S. power grid, relies on a shared computer network and takes advantage of NASA's communications satellites. The Russians also rely on U.S. gyroscopes and flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston to keep the outpost properly oriented without having to use precious rocket fuel.

NASA, in turn, relies on the Russians to ferry U.S. and partner astronauts to and from the station aboard Soyuz spacecraft and to provide the propulsion needed for major station maneuvers. Both sides share critical life support systems and launch uncrewed cargo ships to keep the station supplied.

NASA hopes to have one or more commercially developed spacecraft capable of carrying NASA astronauts to and from the station by around 2017. But until then, the agency must rely on the Russians, paying more than $70 million per seat aboard Soyuz spacecraft.

In a statement released late Wednesday, NASA said it was 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."

The station crew currently consists of three Russians -- Mikhail Tyurin, Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev -- two NASA astronauts -- Rick Mastracchio and Steven Swanson -- and Expedition 39 commander Koichi Wakata, the first Japanese astronaut to command the outpost. Skvortsov, Artemyev and Swanson were launched to the station March 25.

Despite the increased superpower tensions over Ukraine and Crimea, "there is this kind of mutual dependency (with the station program) that would make it not in Russia's interest to cut off our access," Logsdon said in an interview before the most recent Soyuz launch.

"And it's certainly not in our interest to so alienate Russia that we no longer had access to the station," he said. While Russian President Vladimir Putin could step in at some point to block U.S. access to Soyuz flights, "it basically would be a catastrophe for the station," Logsdon said.

"Cutting off U.S. access to station would be kind of a last-resort action that would reflect a total breakdown of U.S.-Russian relationships," he said, adding he does not believe it will come to that. But he said the current conflict may encourage U.S. lawmakers to fully fund NASA's commercial crewed spacecraft program to ensure independent access to space as soon as possible.

In its one-paragraph statement, NASA focused on just that, blaming Congress for not fully funding the Obama administration's commercial crewed spacecraft initiative.

"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," the statement said. "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.

 

 

© 2014 William Harwood/CBS News

 

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NASA Breaks Most Contact With Russia

By KENNETH CHANG and PETER BAKER

APRIL 2, 2014

NASA said Wednesday that it was suspending most contacts with Russian space agency officials, underscoring just how rapidly the Russian-American relationship is deteriorating in the wake of the Kremlin's annexation of Crimea and hinting at further ramifications that will go beyond previous rifts.

The one exception, NASA said, would involve operations of the International Space Station, the primary space collaboration between the two countries.

Otherwise, the extent of NASA's break in relations is broad and includes "travel to Russia and visits by Russian government representatives to NASA facilities, bilateral meetings, email, and teleconferences or videoconferences," Michael F. O'Brien, the agency's associate administrator for international and interagency relations, wrote in an email to top NASA officials.

Over the years of collaboration, the Russian-American partnership in space has continued largely immune to the geopolitical ups and downs between Washington and Moscow, and as recently as a few weeks ago officials expressed optimism that would still be the case, with the NASA administrator, Charles F. Bolden Jr., saying, "Right now, everything is normal in our relationship with the Russians."

Ukraine Crisis in Maps

 

But as the confrontation over Ukraine intensifies, it became untenable for the Obama administration to continue sending NASA officials to Russia or hosting their space agency officials in the United States as if all were normal, even as Washington cut off trade talks and military cooperation and threw Russia out of the Group of 8 industrial nations.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has also directed the Air Force to review the use of Russian engines in rockets that send American military satellites into orbit. The Atlas 5 rockets, now produced by a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, have been built for years with Russian-made RD-180 engines. American officials are exploring the consequences of possible supply interruptions.

Still, the administration was not going so far as to cut off all cooperation, especially just a week after sending a NASA astronaut to the International Space Station along with two Russian cosmonauts in a Russian capsule. Further measures could seriously jeopardize the American space program.

Video

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Video|1:47

Credit Ed Ou for The New York Times

The Russification of Crimea

As Moscow's grip on Crimea tightens, ethnic Russians who were born under Soviet rule are eager to recapture their identity.

Since the retirement of the space shuttles, NASA astronauts get their rides into orbit aboard Russian Soyuz rockets at a cost of up to $70 million a seat. NASA is financing commercial companies to develop rockets and spacecraft to start carrying astronauts as soon as 2017. At a congressional hearing last week, Mr. Bolden said the program, called commercial crew, was the "critical need" for the human spaceflight program.

The new restrictions are similar to ones that limit what NASA is allowed to do with China because of worries, particularly by Representative Frank R. Wolf, Republican of Virginia, that China would take advantage of collaborations to copy American technologies. Under those rules, NASA cannot host any Chinese citizens.

The decision to suspend the relationship with the Russian space agency is unusual for several reasons, not least because keeping the space enterprises alive has long been a symbol of Washington's commitment to an apolitical working relationship with Moscow. Breaking it, some government officials have feared, would invite the Russians to retaliate by suspending nuclear inspections under the new Start treaty — inspections that have continued despite the differences over Ukraine.

But the Obama administration's decision was made easier by the dwindling nature of the nation's space program. Grand plans for international space programs have largely withered, as the space shuttle program has ground to an end. "There's a sense that we don't need the space relationships the way we once did," one senior government scientist said, "because we don't have as much going on in space."

David E. Sanger contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on April 3, 2014, on page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: NASA Breaks Most Contact With Russia.

 

© 2014 The New York Times Company 

 

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NASA cuts ties with Russia except on space station

 

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — After insisting that space relations wouldn't be altered by earthly politics, NASA on Wednesday said it was severing ties with Russia except for the International Space Station.

NASA employees can't travel to Russia or host visitors until further notice. They're also barred from emailing or holding teleconferences with their Russian counterparts because of Russia's actions in Ukraine, according to a memo sent to workers.

Activities related to the space station are exempt. NASA and Russia's space agency will "continue to work together to maintain safe and continuous operation" of the space station, NASA said in a statement released late Wednesday.

Since the retirement of the space shuttle, NASA has depended on Russia to hitch rides to the giant orbiting outpost, paying nearly $71 million for a seat on the Soyuz.

A Russian rocket last week delivered three astronauts, including American Steve Swanson. The laboratory is a partnership of the U.S., Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada. U.S. astronauts train in Russia before flying to the space station and the new directive was not expected to affect that.

The move comes after reassurances that U.S.-Russia space relations were fine despite tensions over Ukraine.

"Right now, everything is normal in our relationship with the Russians," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said during a NASA budget teleconference on March 4.

NASA reiterated the sentiment last week after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.

View gallery

 

Russia's space agency ground specialists open the door of the Soyuz TMA-08M space capsule shortly af …

"We do not expect the current Russia-Ukraine situation to have an impact on our longstanding civil space cooperation with Russia, which goes back decades," an agency statement said.

After the memo leaked Wednesday, NASA confirmed it was suspending most contact with Russia. But it also took a swipe at Congress, noting that it wouldn't be relying on Russia to fly to the space station if funding hadn't been cut. The space agency said it's looking at private rocket companies to ferry astronauts in 2017.

Space policy experts said they're not surprised with the latest guideline because similar memos suspending Russian contact went out to other federal agencies.

Earlier this week, Congress and NATO took steps to punish Russia for its actions in Ukraine. Congress sent President Barack Obama a bill to provide $1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine and add to sanctions against Russia. NATO's foreign ministers ordered an end to civilian and military cooperation with Russia.

Scott Pace, space policy director at George Washington University, said it's noteworthy that the cooperation on the space station remains intact.

"We and the Russians have a very deep and integrated relationship. We are reliant on them as they are on us," he said. "Divorce is not an option."

Pace said there likely will be disruptions for NASA scientists who trade data or work on experiments with Russian researchers.

The contact ban only applies to direct communication between NASA and the Russian space agency, Roscosmos. It doesn't include meetings attended by Russia and other countries.

"I don't think it's a big deal," said John Logsdon, professor emeritus of political science and international affairs at George Washington.

Had NASA cut off access to the space station, "it would be the end" of the International Space Station, he said.

 

Copyright © 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 

 

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NASA suspends Russia ties, except on space station

 

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Washington (AFP) - NASA has cut ties with Russia except for cooperation aboard the International Space Station due to the crisis in Ukraine, the US space agency said.

"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," said a NASA statement.

"NASA and Roscosmos will, however, continue to work together to maintain safe and continuous operation of the International Space Station."

The story was first reported by news site The Verge, which obtained an internal memo describing the policy change.

A copy of the memo posted online described a halt to travel to Russia by NASA employees and of visits by Russians to NASA facilities, and a freeze on exchange of email, teleconferences and video conferences.

The new policy does not apply to "operational International Space Station activities" or "multilateral meetings held outside of Russia that may include Russian participation," said the memo.

Russia's Soyuz spacecraft are the sole means of transport to the ISS for the world's astronauts. The United States pays Russia an average of $70.7 million per seat.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told lawmakers on March 27 that he was aware of no threat that would jeopardize the Russian-US partnership at the space station.

Earlier Wednesday, NATO warned that Russia's military presence on the flashpoint border -- estimated at about 40,000 troops -- with Ukraine was of "grave concern."

NATO on Tuesday announced the alliance was suspending all practical cooperation with Russia, military and civilian, and that there was no confirmation that Russian troops were pulling back from the border.

 

Copyright © 2014 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. 

 

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NASA Suspends Most Cooperation With Russia; Space Station Excepted

By Miriam Kramer, Staff Writer   |   April 02, 2014 08:10pm ET

 

The logo of NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Credit: NASA View full size image

NASA is suspending most of its cooperation with Russia as a result of the ongoing situation in Ukraine, agency officials announced Wednesday afternoon (April 2).

"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," officials said in a statement. "NASA and Roscosmos will, however, continue to work together to maintain safe and continuous operation of the International Space Station."

The news first broke Wednesday in the form of a leaked NASA memo posted online by spaceref.com. [Building the International Space Station (Photos)]

According to the memo, the agency is suspending all contacts with representatives of the Russian government, including email and teleconference communication, with the exception of activities necessary to keep the space station running smoothly. NASA officials can still attend "multilateral meetings" where Russian representatives are present outside of Russia, the memo states.

At the moment, Russia's Soyuz capsules are the only spacecraft that fly NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. NASA hopes to change that in the near future by using privately built U.S. spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the orbiting outpost.

Indeed, the statement issued today stresses that NASA is committed to ending its dependence on Russia. It also asserts that American astronaut taxis would have been ready to begin operations in 2015 had NASA's commercial crew program been fully funded by Congress.

"With the reduced level of funding approved by Congress, we're now looking at launching from U.S. soil in 2017," the official NASA statement reads. "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."

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has said that the relationship between the Russian and U.S. space agencies is "normal" when it comes to their partnership on the space station, despite the situation in Ukraine.

"I think people lose track of the fact that we have occupied the International Space Station now for 13 consecutive years uninterrupted, and that has been through multiple international crises," Bolden said during a news conference on March 4. "I don't think it's an insignificant fact that we're starting to see a number of people with the idea that the International Space Station be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. It's not trivial. It has continued to exist and continued to function with people from a variety of cultures and beliefs."

Last month, Bolden also said that without U.S. participation, the space station couldn't continue functioning as it does now. When asked what would happen if Roscosmos refused to send astronauts to the space station, Bolden explained that Russia could not operate the station without NASA.

"Because we provide navigation, communications, power … I hate to deal in conjecture," Bolden said before members of Congress during a hearing on March 27. "The partners would probably have to shut the space station down. If you're thinking that the Russians will continue to operate the International Space Station, it can't be done."

At the moment, the space station plays host to NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Steve Swanson and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. Cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov, Oleg Artemyev and Mikhail Tyurin round out the outpost's Expedition 39 crew.

Read the full text of the leaked NASA memo here: http://spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=45536&utm_content=api&utm_campaign=&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium

 

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