Crimea Crisis Unlikely to Strain Russia US Cooperation in Space

There is a lot being said and written about Crimea crisis and how it will affect the world, especially the relationship between the United States and Russia. However, space experts believe that this is not going to have any adverse implications on the joint operation in the space arena. Experts believe that there will be equal amount of cooperation from both sides and there is no impact at all to be seen. Some of the experts also believe that although both the countries are Cold War foes, but things are pretty different in the space arena and that means that US and Russia will continue their efforts aboard the International Space Station.

American astronaut Mike Hopkins said that he has just returned from the ISS this month after his stay for six months and he claims that his Russian counterparts are his close friends and cooperation between them all is very strong and unaffected. On the other hand, many experts in the space exploration industry also claim that both the lead nations have to make sure that there is no tension and full cooperation which is healthy for the future of $100 billion space station.

Experts also revealed that the only thing that is different on the ISS is that both the lead nations have their own toilets and separate air conditioning systems, but apart from that they share and cooperate in everything they do. There are complex operations that have to be performed while the station is orbiting the world and that takes lot of cooperation and effort. Apart from that, better coordination and cooperation is also required from the ground through control centers. NASA also claims that the United States also needs help from Russia for transporting their astronauts to the space station for which US pays to Russia directly.

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