NASA announced that it will suspend its space program ties with the Russian Federal Space Agency as the situation in Ukraine worsens.
The US space agency has decided not to work with the Russian space agency anymore; however, it clarified that its ongoing operation with the Russian experts in the International Space Station (ISS) will still continue.
"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," NASA spokesperson Allard Beutel told Mashable.
Beutel explained that the plan to launch spacecraft carrying astronauts from the United States in 2017 might be stifled by the agency's decision, since they are currently dependent on Russia's launching technologies. He stated that the government could either fund NASA's space launches again or continue in sending money to the Russian government.
The announcement came a month after NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said that the United States and Russia will continue its space program ties despite the diplomatic crisis over Russia's actions against 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."
U.S President Barrack Obama has warned Russian leader Vladimir Putin to stop invading Ukraine. The U.S government has put together an aid package for the newly-formed Ukrainian government and it has also acquired sanctions for Russian officials involved in the matter.
This decision from NASA is a surprise since the two countries have been working together for years, setting aside any conflict that they have. On March 25, a new set of crew which consists of two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut were sent off to the ISS via the Russian Soyuz rocket.
