NASA suspends non-ISS contacts with Russia

[Dr Mordrid]

ISS operational and multilateral contacts outside of Russia only, and there's rumors of something happening in Congress.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=45536

NASA Internal Memo: Suspension of NASA contact with Russian entities

Status Report Source: NASA HQ

Posted Wednesday, April 2, 2014

From: O'Brien, Michael F (HQ-TA000)

Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2014 9:33 AM

To: [Deleted]
Cc: [Deleted]

Subject: Suspension of NASA contact with Russian entities

Dear Colleagues,

Given Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, until further notice, the U.S. Government has determined that all NASA contacts with Russian Government representatives are suspended, unless the activity has been specifically excepted. This suspension includes NASA travel to Russia and visits by Russian Government representatives to NASA facilities, bilateral meetings, email, and teleconferences or videoconferences. At the present time, only operational International Space Station activities have been excepted. In addition, multilateral meetings held outside of Russia that may include Russian participation are not precluded under the present guidance. If desired, our office will assist in communication with Russian entities regarding this suspension of activities. Specific questions regarding the implementation of this guidance can be directed to Ms. Meredith McKay, 202.358.1240 or meredith.mckay@nasa.gov, in our office.

We remain in close contact with the Department of State and other U.S. Government departments and agencies. If the situation changes, further guidance will be disseminated.

Obie

Michael F. O'Brien

Associate Administrator for International and Interagency Relations

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

[UtwigMU]

Economic and information World War is on.

Real wars are only fought in poor countries any more. Libya and Croatia with GDP of about 12.000USD/capita were richest countries with war on their territory since WW2.

[Dr Mordrid]

I'm on a private forum where NASA, Roscosmos, Lockheed, SpaceX Boeing etc engineers hang out, and the discussions there are depressing. There are discussions about,

1) an emergency ramp-up of Commercial Crew to get at least SpaceX's DragonRider ready for next year instead of 2016/17. This in case of Russia denying US astronauts passage home on Soyuz.

2) separating the US and Russian sections of ISS. Yes, it can be done. It was explored as a way to use the US side as a deep space exploration gateway after ISS is decommissioned.

3) accelerating plans for a commercial US space station. See below.

4) Russian threats to no longer sell the US RD-180 engines for Atlas V and AJ26 engines for the Ornotal Sciences Antares launchers. There is only a 2 year supply of RD-180's in the US and ~30 AJ26's.

It could take 4-5 years for the US to ramp up production of these engines, and making matters worse the Antares lower stage is made in Ukraine.

ISS is funded to 2024, but that could change. Regardless, NASA has plans for the next station to be a commercial one. Most likely based on the Bigelow Aerospace expandable habitat techs.*

Bigelow Aerospace has a single module on the boards with almost 2X the pressurized volume of the entire ISS, the BA-2100 Olympus (2,100 m3 volume). There are also the BA-330 (330 m3 volume) and the BA-330 DS (deep space.) These would launch on Falcon Heavy, the Space Launch System and the coming SpaceX methane fueled super-heavy launcher.

Their modules can also be joined using hubs to make enormous stations. Bigelow already has an extremely large factory in Las Vegas, and is preparing to fly its 3rd testbed habitat next year. The first 2 are still in orbit and functioning after several years. Their life support system is being tested with humans this year (may have already started.)

BA-2100


Hercules Station concept

[Evildead666]

Bringing back the cold war isn't a good idea for the general population.
Its great for the people who run the countries, since they get to have a lot more sweeping power, in the name of "National Security".
I'm not pointing any fingers, but if I was, it would be at multiple countries, on both sides (because there are two sides here).

The propaganda machines are in full swing in Europe, The US, and The Russian Federation, and even the rest of the world.
The only problem is, this time round, the poulations of the countries involved are a lot more clued in, and they can see through a large amount of it.

You can see just on the Internet, one sides view, then the other sides view, and the truth, is, as usual, somewhere in between. Anyone can see that for their own eyes.

As far as I can tell, The Crimea Annexation was swift, bloodless, and didn't harm any infrastructure.
There should be no rush to place any sanctions on Russia. Crimea hasn't moved physically, and I doubt much of the usual way of life has changed.
The only reason to rush, is to be seen reacting to something.
Thats called political motivation.

NATO was closing down offices, and restructuring, since it was basically no longer needed in Europe.
They have now 'Created' a need. By pressuring The Russian Federations borders, the US/EU/etc have gotten the only response that was possible.

The 'West' f__ked up in Syria, and Russia picked up the Ball.
The 'West' F__ked up even worse in Ukraine, and Russia has picked up the Ball, and kept it for the time being.


That said, the faster we get into making outer space a 'Habitable' medium (long term, plants etc...) the better.
Just wish it was a "We, the Human Race..." thing, rather than a rushed, stupid, solitary response to a bit of political bickering.

[Dr Mordrid]

The Russia economic sanctions are already getting in place, with more coming (oil, gas etc), so don't hold your breath that this ends soon. In the US the political debate is more along the lines of if we're putting the screws on fast & hard enough, not if. There's even talk of NATO troops in the Baltic states and other points east as a 'tripwire.'

[Evildead666]

Russia is holding a very good hand, with some very good cards.
The 'West' is a bit screwed atm. The economic sanctions aren't going to hurt Russia much, but they will come back and bite us in the ass somehow.

Ukraine is a sovereign state in its own right. Its not part of NATO, or part of Europe.
There may have been talks, but nothing came of it.
Therefore, NATO shouldn't be getting involved.

If anyone should get involved, it should be via the UN. At least attempted, even if its immediately vetoed.
That would leave civil war, or Russia to get involved.

I'm not sure that Russia will actually impose that many sweeping sanctions.
As i understand it, VISA and Mastercard no longer work for certain Russian citizens or states ?
If they are 'nicer' than the 'west' is, then they will yet again be seen as 'the good guys' and the 'west' seen as the 'bad guys'.
Why would they cut the Gas ? Its warm here now, they usually do that in the middle of winter...

Anyhow, its all getting waaaay out of hand. Problem is, I don't think anyone is going to back down.

[Dr Mordrid]

The NATO troops would be because Herr Putin started playing the "Protect the Russian language!!" card with Estonia and other NATO members. What's next, Russian Hill in San Francisco? His confidence may be overriding his common sense.

[Evildead666]

Herr Putin may be a bit far.
You have to admit, the political spiel that is being thrown out by media on either side is inherently one-sided.
Its like they think we're all f-ing retards (no offense to handicapped people), and can't see blatant propaganda!

Putin amassing huge numbers of troops by the Ukrainian border. Bullshit. The UN (or something) inspectors have seen, and said, there is no problem.
But all we hear is "Putin might annex other countries next" Bollox he will.
He took Crimea because of the huge (main) Black sea Naval base the Russians have had there for many years.
He's not looking to take Ukraine, but he doesn't want it to be Nato, because of the hassle that might cause.
The US Gov't has a huge tendency to f-ck around in other peoples business, and having Nato so close to Russia would be a bad thing atm.
It could have been a good thing, without Nato, but the NSA had to f-ck the world stage up for everyone lately.

We're basically back to square one. With everyone.
If we are nice from now on, thats how it will be. If we're dicks, then thats how it will be.

Team America : World Police said it better, with the Asses, Dicks and Pussies.

PS-Off-Topic: When the hell is the Mad Max reboot coming out ?

[paulw]

The NATO troops would be because Herr Putin started playing the "Protect the Russian language!!" card with Estonia and other NATO members. What's next, Russian Hill in San Francisco? His confidence may be overriding his common sense.

Doesn't Herr Putin's language remind you of another dictator in the late 1930s?? Gave the same reasons to invade the Sudetenland. The British better reactivate their Neville Chamberlain Brigade and the Light Brigade

[Umfriend]

I'm just wondering: What if >60% of the Crimean population favours being part of Russia instead of the Ukraine. What would be wrong with that?

[UtwigMU]

Doesn't Herr Putin's language remind you of another dictator in the late 1930s?? Gave the same reasons to invade the Sudetenland. The British better reactivate their Neville Chamberlain Brigade and the Light Brigade

What the Western media are saying on Putin is extremely one sided. I followed this extensively, checked BBC, Fox, CNN, NHK (Japan), KyivPost, EspressoTV (Ukrainian), RT, vesti.ru. And what Putin is saying does not get across at all. He held a speech (which I listened entirely) in which he quoted several international laws, historic examples, percentage points and all that was reported is that Crimea is Russian.

Some Russians for example are claiming that NATO fascist are encroaching on Russian borders like in 1930s

For Russia Crimea is of strategic importance and as long as Russia is alive and kicking they will not let it go. They sensed a real possibility that western puppet (Nuland wanted Yatsenyuk as PM and they made him one) government in Ukraine might kick them out and acted. It's like Gibraltar is of strategic importance to UK and they posture with warships in front of Spain.

This is also nothing new, see Crimean Wars in 1860s. If Russia looses Crimea, they cannot project power in Mediterranean, Balkans and Middle east and this is exactly what other super powers of the time (England, Turkey... now US) want to prevent.

I do think the Cold War is back on and this will not end anytime soon.

[Evildead666]

What the Western media are saying on Putin is extremely one sided. I followed this extensively, checked BBC, Fox, CNN, NHK (Japan), KyivPost, EspressoTV (Ukrainian), RT, vesti.ru. And what Putin is saying does not get across at all. He held a speech (which I listened entirely) in which he quoted several international laws, historic examples, percentage points and all that was reported is that Crimea is Russian.

Some Russians for example are claiming that NATO fascist are encroaching on Russian borders like in 1930s

For Russia Crimea is of strategic importance and as long as Russia is alive and kicking they will not let it go. They sensed a real possibility that western puppet (Nuland wanted Yatsenyuk as PM and they made him one) government in Ukraine might kick them out and acted. It's like Gibraltar is of strategic importance to UK and they posture with warships in front of Spain.

This is also nothing new, see Crimean Wars in 1860s. If Russia looses Crimea, they cannot project power in Mediterranean, Balkans and Middle east and this is exactly what other super powers of the time (England, Turkey... now US) want to prevent.

I do think the Cold War is back on and this will not end anytime soon.

I fully agree. If you're not getting your info from multiple, opposing sources, then you don't have the whole picture.

[Brian Ellis]

In 1974, a large and powerful nation brutally invaded a country because one third of the country's population spoke the same language as the aggressors. I'm not saying that they were without cause at that time because the minority felt threatened by the majority who spoke a different language, even though both sides were ethnically of the same origin and different from that of the aggressor. Despite numerous UN resolutions and other international pressure, including sanctions that hurt the common people more than the political elite, the aggressor's army is still in that country and there are still heavily armed UN patrols along the cease-fire line, which divides the capital city in two, the last divided capital in Europe. Today, 40 years later, long past the time when the initial cause has ceased to exist, the country is divided quasi-permanently and the two sides just cannot patch up their differences, so the situation is in a state of limbo.

Crimea is in a very similar situation to, you guessed it, Cyprus, with a few differences, the main one being that Russia has agreed with Ukraine to continue to operate important naval bases there. AFAIK, Ukraine has never denied this right of what is a sovereign base. But Ukraine also has a naval base there and Russia has just denied their right to use it on their own sovereign territory. The argument that Russia is there to protect "Russian" citizens, in reality mostly Russian-speaking Ukrainians, is just a pretext to ensure they continue to have control of their naval base, come what may, and to annexe the Ukrainian one, to boot. If a new, demonstrably democratic, Ukrainian president/government/parliament were to be elected in the next year or so, respecting the sovereign base treaty with Russia, Ukraine could legitimately demand that Crimea be returned to them. However, I'll bet a pound to a penny this would never happen. I'll go so far as to say that, like Cyprus, the Russian aggressors will still be in the Crimea in 40 years time while Ukraine will bemoan its territorial loss and continue to demand reunification, no matter what useless actions are taken. I'll go so far as to predict that, within a couple of years or so, a UN peacekeeping force will patrol the Crimean border, assuming Russia will not aggress farther.

[KRSESQ]

I don't think the cold war ever really ended. We've just been enjoying a prolonged period of détente.

Turkey has reportedly declared its intention to close the Turkish Straits to Russian shipping if Russia crosses the line in the eyes of the international community (personally I'd love to see that!). The LAST thing Putin wants is a conflict with Turkey and loss of access to the Aegean!

One thing that comes across in the western media is that Putin is a very vain person. Obamas recent remarks about Putin and the Ukraine crisis were deliberately meant to attack that vanity. Also, Putin may be getting heat from some of his very wealthy comrades, who are annoyed to learn that their Visa cards no longer work. That may help to explain why Russian forces are currently at a relative standstill (knock on wood).

[Umfriend]

Brian, why would Ukraine bemoan a territorial loss of a piece of land that only became theirs 60 years ago and not through efforts of their own?
I'm not sure what "Russian-speaking Ukrainians" even means or how it is relevant. *If* a majority of the people living in the Crimea wants to be part of Russia, wouldn't that be grounds enough to have it transferred?