14 DAY TRIAL // The American space agency have broken all ties with the Russian Federal Space Agency (RosCosmos) a couple of days ago, except those related to the operations and mission planning for the International Space Station (ISS). This move comes as an answer to the actions of the Russian Federation, which recently annexed the Crimea Peninsula from the Ukraine.
The Verge was able to obtain an internal NASA memo on Wednesday, April 2, which pointed at this event. Officials with NASA have yet to comment on this story, and it is entirely possible that they never will. The document obtained by the online news site indicates that cross-agency activities between the two organizations are just suspended, not halted altogether, until the political crisis is fixed.
What this means is that no NASA employees can travel to Russia for a while, and that no Russian personnel can work at NASA facilities. E-mail, teleconference and video conference exchanges have also been halted. “Multilateral meetings held outside of Russia that may include Russian participation” and “operational International Space Station activities” are exempt from this ban, the memo said.
The document was sent by the NASA associate administrator for International and Interagency Relations, Michael O'Brien, and is in effect for all NASA centers. The memo comes on the heels of a statement by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, who on March 27 said that he was unaware of any threats that could affect the partnership between Russia and the US as far as the ISS goes, Space-Travel reports.