Last Thursday, the United States overwhelmingly passed a new round of sanctions against Russia, taking the executive actions made by then president Barack Obama in December 2016 and putting them into law. Congress also wrote its legislation such that the White House must get Congressional approval prior to any easing of sanctions against Russia. Despite some concerns about the law, President Donald Trump has said he will sign the bill.

Obama leveled these sanctions, including the dismissal of many Russian diplomats in the United States, following credible reports that the foreign adversary had meddled in the US presidential election. Russian President Vladimir Putin took no action at the time, believing he could work with President Trump to ease the restrictions. But after the Congressional action, Putin acted this weekend to remove hundreds of US diplomats from Russia. The number of US diplomats and Russian nationals employed as staff by the US government must now be 455, the same number Russia has in the United States.

In its most recent round of sanctions, the US government took care to carve out exceptions for key industries, including aerospace. This allows the American rocket company United Launch Alliance to continue to procure RD-180 engines for its Altas V rocket, and for NASA to continue smooth relations with Russia for its partnership with the International Space Station. Three astronauts, from NASA, Italy, and Russia, launched aboard a Russian spacecraft Friday to the station.

However, Russia's chief space official, Dmitry Rogozin, warned Saturday that such a situation may not be tolerable forever. "They (the United States) have an interesting approach, they try not to harm areas in which they are interested," he said in a television interview. "They say that 'space is outside politics.' We take the 'space is outside politics' slogan into account, but nothing lasts forever."

It's not the first time Rogozin has tweaked NASA. Back in 2014, as tensions between the United States and Russia rose to a crescendo over Ukraine, he mocked NASA and the US government for its reliance on Russia to get US astronauts to the International Space Station. If the US didn't like Russia's policies and was going to persist in economic sanctions, deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin tweeted, perhaps they would like to use a trampoline to get to space? He also threatened to leave the station in 2020 before later extending the partnership through 2024.

Therefore, it's not clear how serious the present threat is. Russia's space program relies heavily on the funds it receives for rocket engines and rides for NASA astronauts to the space station. And it's not just the practical value of Russian hardware or American cash that both sides stand to lose. Both sides have worked hard to build political good will in space, beginning with a joint Apollo-Soyuz flight in 1975, followed by joint visits to the Russian Mir station and finally the International Space Station. This is one area where the two adversaries have truly gotten along and prospered.