Russia Wants to Ban U.S. From the Space Station, But NASA Knows Nothing About It

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Expedition 37/38 crew members (from left) Mike Hopkins, Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy are preparing to return to Earth inside their Soyuz TMA-10M spacecraft March 10.

Image: NASA

By Amanda Wills2014-05-13 21:33:00 UTC

The Russian government will reportedly reject a request from the United States to use the International Space Station after 2020, but NASA says it's not aware of any such changes.

It's business as usual on board the ISS, NASA adds, as three astronauts return to Earth on Tuesday evening.

See also: NASA: In 2017, Our Astronauts Will Launch From America, Not Russia

"Ongoing operations on the ISS continue on a normal basis with a planned return of crew tonight and expected launch of a new crew in the next few weeks," a NASA spokesperson told Mashable. "We have not received any official notification from the Government of Russia on any changes in our space cooperation at this point."

Along with attempting to ice out the U.S. from the ISS in 2020, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told reporters on Tuesday that Moscow would also keep the U.S. from using Russian-made rocket engines to launch military satellites.

Rogozin said the Russian Federal Space Agency didn't need the U.S. to continue its work in orbit — in fact, it's just the opposite.

"The Russian segment can exist independently from the American one," he said. "The U.S. one cannot."

U.S. astronaut Steven Swanson, left, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov, crew members of the mission to the International Space Station, speak with relatives during pre-launch preparations at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in March 2014.

Image: Maxim Shipenkov, Pool, File/Associated Press

Rogozin does have a fair point. Russia's trump card is transportation. Without a shuttle program, U.S. astronauts have to hitch a ride with Russia in order to get to the ISS. But let's not forget that, just a few weeks ago, NASA said it plans to return human spaceflight to American soil by 2017.

"We’re now looking at launching from U.S. soil in 2017," NASA spokesperson Allard Beutel told Mashable in April. "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."

Russia's move on Tuesday is in retaliation to the sanctions that the U.S. has been unleashing on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his top officials in response to Russia's continued involvement in the crisis in eastern Ukraine and Crimea.

Until recently, the ISS has been able to operate largely beyond politics. Just last month, NASA sent a memo to employees stating that it was cutting all ties with Russia, except for on the ISS:

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.

Launched in 1998, the $150 billion station was a joint effort between the U.S., Europe, Japan, Russia and Canada — all of which sends astronauts to the space station today. Now, NASA spends about $3 billion per year to help maintain the ISS.

The ISS was only planned to operate through 2017, but the Obama administration extended the mission through 2024.

When NASA shut down its shuttle program in 2011 and became fully reliant on Russia to get its astronauts to space, it didn't seem like there would be a problem. In orbit, politics and animosity almost faded away in pursuit of science.

Even though the Ukraine crisis was quickly unraveling at the time, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in March that he wasn't worried about the situation as it pertains to NASA. As an example, Bolden, who commanded the first U.S.-Russian space shuttle mission in 1994, told the story of flying with former Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev only a few years after the Cold War.

"We spent the evening at dinner, talking about our aspirations for the world, talking about our families," Bolden said. "I found that our relationship with the Russians in the space program has been the same ever since. We have weathered the storm through lots of contingencies."

Topics: International Space Station, ISS, NASA, russia, Space, U.S., US & World, World