NASA officials say they are confident that the United States can maintain operations aboard the International Space Station (ISS), even if Russia were to carry through with threatened sanctions.
Moscow lately announced it will defund the station and prevent American astronauts from reaching the facility aboard Russian rockets, starting in 2020. The move was made as part of a series of sanctions between Washington and Moscow over the Ukrainian crisis. The sanctions were announced by Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.
The space station is jointly operated by the United States and Russia, together with Japan, Canada and Europe. Because of the international nature of the operations, no single nation may halt activities aboard the station, as per the American space agency.
Even if Russia were to cut off funding for the orbiting outpost, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said that no nation is indispensable to the program. The official also stated that private companies will begin ferrying U.S. space travelers to the ISS within three years. This will provide Americans with access to the station, even if Russia were to refuse U.S. travelers on their spacecraft.
Relations between NASA and the Russian space agency Roscomos have not changed, noted Bolden.
While speaking to reporters in Berlin, the administrator was asked if China could help fill a vacancy in the Russian contribution to the program. The American space agency is currently forbidden from partnerships with Beijing.
"There is nothing that I see in the tea leaves that says our relationship is going to change," Bolden told the press.
Soon after Russia announced they would end funding and transport for the ISS, Moscow signed a new agreement with the Chinese National Space Agency. This pact will increase cooperation between the two nations in space.
In addition to the United States, Europe, Japan and Canada also depend on Moscow to bring their space travelers up to the station. Americans have been without a domestic vehicle for astronauts since the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011.
"Bolden's 34-year career with the Marine Corps also included 14 years as a member of NASA's Astronaut Office. After joining the office in 1980, he traveled to orbit four times aboard the space shuttle between 1986 and 1994, commanding two of the missions and piloting two others. His flights included deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope and the first joint U.S.-Russian shuttle mission, which featured a cosmonaut as a member of his crew," NASA wrote in the administrator's online biography.
The International Space Station is due to continue operations through 2024.
