Tensions in eastern Ukraine and growing Western concerns about a Russian invasion may not have a significant impact on the International Space Station (ISS) or US-Russian cooperation in space.
This was conveyed by Scott Pace, former Head of the US National Space Council, as quoted from PBS News Hour. Pace, who is now director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, said the space station had been largely "isolated" from political events.
"It's possible to envision a severing of ties with Russia that would harm the space station, but that would be at the level of declining diplomatic relations," Pace said.
"That would be a last resort, so I don't really see that (severance of cooperation with Russia) will happen unless there is a wider military confrontation."
The ISS is an international partnership of five space agencies from 15 countries, including Canada, several countries in Europe, Japan, Russia and the US. Launched in 1998, the space station is transformed into a complex almost the size of a football field, with eight miles of power lines, an acre of solar panels and three high-tech laboratories.
The year 2020 marks two decades of the ISS where astronauts live and work in orbit. The first crew, US astronaut Bill Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko launched from Kazakhstan on October 31, 2000. Two days later, they opened the doors of the space station, and shook hands with each other as a symbol of unity.
US-Russian Astronauts Unite
The three astronauts worked well together, although sometimes tensions arose between the two Mission Controls, in Houston, USA and outside Moscow, Russia.
Shepherd, during a NASA panel discussion with colleagues, said he was so frustrated by conflicting orders that he insisted astronauts on the ISS should be ordered with a plan.
Meanwhile, Russian crews continued to come and go after NASA's Columbia disaster in 2003 and after the shuttle retired in 2011.
"It's a way of making a concerted effort but that power is limitless and terrestrial conflicts on Earth can still get in the way. Space is increasingly important to our daily lives and that's something everyone should be aware of," Pace said.
Earlier this year, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who chairs the NATO-Russia Council meeting in Brussels, said he was interested in discussing ways to prevent dangerous military incidents or accidents involving Russia and Western allies, to reduce space and cyber threats. , as well as setting limits on the deployment of missiles and other arms control initiatives.
There have been concerns raised in this Congress about the impact of the conflict over Ukraine on the ISS. Lawmakers have specifically excluded space cooperation from previous sanctions and are expected to make similar arguments against the targeting as the government considers next steps on Ukraine.
On Wednesday (23/2), Russia is known to have started evacuating its embassy in Kyiv, and Ukraine is urging its citizens to leave Russia. Russian lawmakers authorized Russian President Vladimir Putin to use military force outside his country and US President Joe Biden and European leaders responded by imposing sanctions on Russian oligarchs and banks.
The two leaders signaled that a larger confrontation could be imminent. Putin has yet to release the force of 150,000 troops gathered on three sides of Ukraine, while Biden withstood the toughest sanctions that could cause economic turmoil for Russia, but said they would continue if there was further aggression.
The sanctions underscore the urgency felt by Western countries to blunt the conflict. Currently, there are four NASA astronauts, two Russian cosmonauts and one European astronaut on the ISS.