Steve Swanson, left, an American astronaut, training with Russian colleagues for his flight to the ISS last week

Tensions over the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea spilled into space yesterday after Nasa suspended cooperation with Russia, prompting worries about the future of the International Space Station (ISS).

Days after an insistence by the head of Nasa, Charlie Bolden, that its relationship with Russia remained unaffected by political strains – and 39 years after the first US-Soviet collaboration in orbit - the US space agency announced that it was severing “the majority” of contact with its international partner.

Operation of the ISS - a $100 billion orbiting laboratory currently crewed by two American astronauts, three Russians and one Japanese – is exempt from the sanctions.

However, the decision to withdraw all other ties raised concerns about the potential for tit-for-tat moves that could put a