NASA Policy to Suspend Contact with Russia 'Unprecedented,' But Maybe Symbolic, Expert Says

NASA's order to employees to suspend most contact with Russian government representatives is the latest U.S-Russia political development in the ongoing crisis over Ukraine, but the new policy may not have many on-the-ground effects for people working at the American space agency, according to one space historian.

A NASA statement released Wednesday (April 2) directed U.S. space agency officials to suspend contact with Russian government representatives, but ongoing operations on the International Space Station are exempt from the new policy. The statement was released hours after a leaked NASA memo stating the same policy. Other U.S. government agencies are also curtailing contact with Russian government officials, NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries told Space.com.

Asif Siddiqi, a space historian, shared his personal views on the NASA policy and its context with Space.com.

"The NASA statement clearly states that 'NASA is suspending the majority of its ongoing engagements with the Russian Federation' except ISS [International Space Station]," said Siddiqi, a Russian space program analyst at Fordham University. "So, from my perspective, the fact that cooperation on ISS hasn't been affected suggests that things will proceed largely as before."

Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, and NASA do engage in some other scientific collaboration, but most partnerships between the two organizations take place within the space station program.

"To my knowledge, NASA and Roscosmos don't have that many cooperative programs besides ISS," Siddiqi said. "I believe they have some instrumentation on a couple of NASA planetary vehicles and things like that. But ISS is really it. So as long as ISS isn't affected, I wonder if this is largely symbolic."

Even if symbolic, the contact ban could still affect morale on the ground and even in space, Siddiqi said. The policy shift may affect Russian and American crewmembers on the space station, he added.

He also called the contact ban unique in the post-Cold War era.

"At the height of the Cold War there was hardly any significant cooperation in space between the two superpowers," Siddiqi said. "So I would say it's still not as bad as that time." But in the post-Cold War climate, "I would say that this is pretty serious. I can't remember a time in the past 20 years when either side made such a bold statement about not cooperating with the other side. It may only have symbolic effects (given its exemption of ISS), but the statement itself is unprecedented."

NASA and Russia are planning to launch a joint yearlong mission to the space station in 2015. Siddiqi says that he thinks that mission will go on as planned despite the leaked memo, but that he also thinks the ban could affect later collaboration. "There is too much institutional momentum built up to not pursue that [yearlong mission]," Siddiqi said. "But it certainly might affect any follow-on projects of that nature."

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NASA Policy to Suspend Contact with Russia 'Unprecedented,' But Maybe Symbolic, Expert Says