Earlier today, in a leaked internal email memo first reported by The Verge, NASA officials announced that the agency was suspending nearly all relations with the Russian Federation, due to the nation's "ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity."

As of today, all contact between NASA representatives and any Russian government representatives will cease, as will all travel plans to Russia, all plans for Russian representatives to visit NASA facilities, and even emails, teleconferences and video conferences. The only program that's exempt from this, at the moment, is anything having to do with keeping the International Space Station running.

Later in the day, NASA's official Google+ account released the following statement:

Given Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, NASA is suspending the majority of its ongoing engagements with the Russian Federation. NASA and Roscosmos will, however, continue to work together to maintain safe and continuous operation of the International Space Station. NASA is laser focused on a plan to return human spaceflight launches to American soil, and end our reliance on Russia to get into space. This has been a top priority of the Obama Administration’s for the past five years, and had our plan been fully funded, we would have returned American human spaceflight launches — and the jobs they support — back to the United States next year. With the reduced level of funding approved by Congress, we’re now looking at launching from U.S. soil in 2017. The choice here is between fully funding the plan to bring space launches back to America or continuing to send millions of dollars to the Russians. It's that simple. The Obama Administration chooses to invest in America — and we are hopeful that Congress will do the same.

This is quite the turnaround from just a month ago, when relations were proclaimed to be normal between the space agency and Russia. So far, the move is being met with mixed reactions from the public. It's no secret that, ever since the Space Shuttle program was retired, NASA has been dependent on Russia for access to space, and many have responded that it's unjustifiably optimistic for NASA officials to believe that the U.S. Congress will grant them the funding necessary to bring space launches back onto American soil.

One hope for this is that SpaceX, which conducts launches from either Cape Canaveral in Florida or Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, can get their manned Dragon spacecraft readied and rated for use with human crew members. However, the latest word on the SpaceX website is that this version of the Dragon spacecraft won't be ready for another two to three years.

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There's no word yet on what Russia's response to this will be, but when it comes down to it, the International Space Station is the model for the future of human space exploration. It's going to take the efforts and resources of multiple nations to continue operations in space and to expand out into space. The situation in the Ukraine is certainly serious enough to warrant diplomatic action, but it's NASA that's dependent on Russia here, not the other way around. So, it's doubtful that this will put any effective pressure on the Russian government and it will be years before either public or private space agencies can get astronauts into space from the United States. Hopefully, this decision doesn't backfire.

(Photo courtesy: NASA)

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