Astronauts who have lived on board the International Space Station have said that seeing Earth from orbit puts politics into perspective.
However, NASA astronauts won't be making the call to sever ties with Russia's space program if the current geopolitical crisis in Ukraine plays out into a full-scale war. Tension between Russia and the United States has been mounting over the past week, and President Obama has said there will be "costs" if Russian President Vladimir Putin invades Ukraine.
Those costs will most likely come in the form of sweeping sanctions and perhaps military intervention. But what about NASA?
With a now-defunct shuttle program, NASA relies on the Russian Federal Space Agency to get its astronauts to the ISS. Every few months, we hitch a ride on a Russian-made Soyuz spacecraft, alongside Russian cosmonauts and launch into orbit, where we spend the next five months or so working with each other in zero gravity.
In space, where even the most basic activities are dangerous, working together as a team is paramount for survival — no matter which country you call home.
"We are continuing to monitor the situation," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said Tuesday during a press conference about the agency's 2015 budget.
"We have a crew member who is coming home at the end of this period. And then at the end of the month, we'll actually send Steve Swanson up again," he added.
— Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) March 4, 2014
The ISS has been the cornerstone of peaceful relations between the U.S. and Russia when it comes to space, and the two agencies have seemingly been able to operate independent of politics. However, we've yet to fly together during a war.
"Right now everything is normal in our relationship with the Russians," Bolden said. "Since the International Space Station has been in orbit, it's very important to understand that started with a partnership between the United States and Russia. That partnership in space remains intact and normal."
Though he only touched on the Ukraine situation briefly, Bolden, who commanded the first U.S.-Russian space shuttle mission in 1994, reiterated that he's not worried about the situation as it pertains to NASA. He echoed a similar sentiment that many astronauts have expressed before. If you work in space, you are, generally, above the politics of your country — figuratively and literally.
As an example, Bolden told the story of flying with former Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev only a few years after the Cold War.
"We spent the evening at dinner, talking about our aspirations for the world, talking about our families," Bolden said. "I found that our relationship with the Russians in the space program has been the same ever since. We have weathered the storm through lots of contingencies."
UPDATE: March 5, 2014 at 7:47 p.m. ET — NASA spokesperson Allard Beutel gave Mashable the following statement on the situation in Russia:
NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) continue to work together in the mutual pursuit of peaceful space exploration. We do not expect the current Russia-Ukraine situation to have an impact on our longstanding civil space cooperation with Russia, which goes back decades, including our partnership on the International Space Station program. Plans remain on track for upcoming launches to the station and return of astronauts to Earth.
NASA is working aggressively to return human spaceflight launch to American soil, and end our reliance on Russia to get into space. Later this year, NASA intends to select the American companies that will transport its astronauts to the space station beginning in 2017.
In the meantime, NASA and Roscosmos will continue to work with each other to maintain the space station, where humans have lived continuously for more than 13 years, and we are confident that our two space agencies will continue to work closely as they have throughout various ups and downs of the broader U.S.-Russia foreign relationship.
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