Work on International Space Station will continue
Citing Russia’s ongoing
violations of Ukraine’s sovereign and territorial integrity, NASA told
its officials today that the agency is suspending all contact with
Russian government representatives. In an internal NASA memorandum
obtained by The Verge, the agency said that the suspension
includes travel to Russia, teleconferences, and visits by Russian
government officials to NASA facilities. NASA is even suspending the
exchange of emails with Russian officials.
Ongoing International Space
Station activities are exempt from this suspension, however, as are
meetings with other countries held outside of Russia that include the
participation of Russian officials. The directives come directly from
Michael O'Brien, the agency associate administrator for International
and Interagency Relations.
"NASA's goals aren't political," said a NASA scientist who spoke to The Verge
on condition of anonymity. "This is one of the first major actions I
have heard of from the US government and it is to stop science and
technology collaboration... You're telling me there is nothing better?"
Earlier in March, NASA's chief executive, Charles Bolden, told reporters
that "everything is normal in our relationship with Russia." But that
relationship seems to have gone sour since then. Last week, Bolden used
mounting tensions with Russia to blast Congress on its lack of space funding in a blog post, stating that the US' current reliance on Russian space missions was unacceptable.
Here is an excerpt of the memo:
Given Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine¹s 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.
Update April 2nd, 7:45pm: NASA has issued a statement confirming that it is halting "the majority of its ongoing engagements with the Russian Federation," while ISS operation has been excepted. We've reproduced the statement below.
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.
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