U.S. and Russia will continue space program ties despite of diplomatic crisis over Russia's actions in Ukraine.
"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," NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden told USA Today. "We will go into contingency planning for that as the situation dictates, but right now, we don't see any reason to be doing so."
According to NASA, its relationship with Russia's space agency continues as usual. In fact, on Monday, there will be a scheduled preparation to land an astronaut and two cosmonauts and two weeks later, it will launch a crew from Kazakhstan.
Also, later this month NASA will launch a reconnaissance satellite from Cape Canaveral. An American rocket will use a booster from Ukraine and engines from Russia to launch International Space Station (ISS) cargo, crews and security satellites.
Orbital Science Corp., who depends on Ukranian companies for their Antares booster rocket, will also monitor the situation.
Experts are optimistic that Russia will not use space assets for leverage even if the crisis worsens. Money and prestige will be put to risk, they say.
Aside from the money, the hosting of the recent Winter Olympics in Sochi was one of the honors and prestige that the ISS and other space, said Anatoly Zak, author of "Russia in Space and the New Jersey-based editor of RussianSpaceWeb.com.
Zak emphasizes that U.S. and Russia has survived the latter's adamant opposition to the Iraq War and its invasion of Georgia in 2008, among other past conflicts. Russia stayed true to its commitments all these years.
"Unless the situation escalates further - which it can - I don't see any chance that they would use space as a bargaining chip," Zak said.
Russian spacecrafts will continue to fly astronauts for the coming several years.
