Russia's attack on Ukraine made some concerned about the operation of the International Space Station (ISS). NASA ensures the space station will continue to operate as usual.
Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on Thursday (23/2). This action triggered tougher sanctions as announced by US President Joe Biden.
Even though Russia was sanctioned by the US and the war is still ongoing, NASA confirmed that civil cooperation between the US and Russia in space regarding the ISS will continue.
"NASA continues to work with all of our international partners, including State Space Corporation Rosscosmos, to ensure safe operations on the International Space Station," NASA said in a statement to Space.
"The new export control measures will continue to enable US-Russian civil space cooperation. No changes are planned to the agency's support for ongoing orbit and ground station operations."
In his speech yesterday, President Biden announced new sanctions imposed on Russia, and said there would be new restrictions on what can be exported to Russia.
"We estimate that we will cut Russia's imports of high-tech by more than half. That will affect their ability to continue to modernize their military. This will bring down their aerospace industry, including their space program," Biden said in his speech.
Biden's speech did not mention NASA, NASA's collaboration with Russia in space, or the ISS explicitly. However, the head of the Russian space agency (Roscosmos) Dmitry Rogozin posted several threats on Twitter.
In a tweet posted after Biden's speech aired, Rogozin said the new sanctions would disrupt the partnership between the US and Russia.
"Do you want to destroy our cooperation on the ISS?" Rogozin wrote in his tweet.
"If you stop working with us, who will save the ISS from an uncontrolled deorbit and falling into the United States or Europe? There is also the option of dropping a 500-ton structure on India and China. Do you want to threaten them with such a prospect? The ISS doesn't fly over Russia, so all the risks are in your hands. Are you ready?" he continued.
Even though Rogozin had made his threat earlier, NASA's response that was released later seemed to indicate that at this time the new sanctions would not interfere with international collaboration in space.