Ban
On Russian Contacts Spreads To Space Agency NASA
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[April 03, 2014]
By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) — NASA
has been added to the list of U.S. government agencies prohibited from
contacting Russian government representatives, though operation of the
International Space Station is exempt from the ban, officials said on
Wednesday.
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"This suspension includes NASA travel to Russia and visits by
Russian government representatives to NASA facilities, bilateral
meetings, email, and teleconferences or video conferences. At the
present time, only operational International Space Station
activities have been excepted," NASA Associate Administrator Michael
O'Brien wrote in a memo to employees that was posted on the
NASAWatch.com website.
The gesture may be largely symbolic. The only major space project
under direct U.S.-Russia control is the space station, a $100
billion research laboratory, owned by 15 nations, which flies about
250 miles above Earth.
Three Russian cosmonauts, two U.S. astronauts and one Japanese
astronaut currently are living aboard the orbital outpost.
"It's not a major deal — and that's appropriate because space
cooperation is one of the few things that actually has gone
relatively well with the Russians," said Scott Pace, director of
George Washington University's Space Policy Institute.
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"If we want to express our opposition to their actions, I hope that
we would choose other instruments," he added.
The sanctions stem from Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea
peninsula.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
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