NASA officially ended relations with Russian scientists in connection with the Ukrainian situation. From now on, they will contact with Russia exclusively on issues related to the International Space Station.
All contracts concluded between the Russian government and the agency NASA were in limbo. Political sanctions nevertheless reached the scientific sector, which came as a surprise to many scientists, both in Russia and in the United States. But, this was to be expected, because NASA is mostly funded by the federal government, and if it receives orders from top management, you can’t help it.
From now on, NASA employees are prohibited from visiting Russia, establishing teleconferences with Russian scientists and engineers, and also hosting Russian guests on their side. The management of NASA strictly forbade its employees to even conduct e-mail correspondence with any of their Russian colleagues. The orders came directly from NASA's International Relations Executive Director Michael O'Brien.
However, upcoming projects related to the International Space Station will remain in force and will be implemented on schedule. Anyway, Russia is still the only country today that can deliver supplies, equipment and other items necessary for astronauts to the ISS.
“NASA is not a political organization. And this is the first such action on the part of the American government regarding the international development of science and technology, - one of NASA scientists was indignant in an interview with The Verge portal, - Do you want to say that they had no other options? Yes, this can not be! ".
The week before, one of the leaders of NASA, Charles Bolden, took advantage of the situation of tensions between the United States and Russia, wrote the following in his blog:
“American astronaut Steve Swanson was delivered to the ISS not from the coast of Florida, but from Kazakhstan on a Russian rocket. I think that this kind of US dependence on Russia in terms of the space program is simply unacceptable! The US government should pay attention to this and increase funding for the national space program, rather than relying on other countries in this matter. ”
It is difficult to say now what the decisions of the American government will lead to, but perhaps we are witnessing the return of the Cold War in all its glory. The development of science and technology should not suffer because of the handful of politicians fighting for their prestige, but the US administration does not yet understand this.
The article is based on materials .
Comments
Post a Comment