“A little bit stressed” NASA is scaling back its collaboration with Russia in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As a result, the number of employees will be cut.

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has reduced its staff in Russia due to its full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. 

This was stated by the Deputy head of NASA Pam Melroy, writes SpaceNews.

“We are certainly a little bit stressed with our staff in Russia. One outcome of this is a reduced staff in Russia. I hesitate to use the word contingency planning. It’s thinking things through, especially if we are squeezed harder on staff in Russia,” she said.

Regarding a seat-barter arrangement with Russia that will allow astronauts to travel on the Soyuz and cosmonauts to fly on commercial crew vehicles, she stated:

“We’re certainly watching that closely. That is something that the State Department is doing for us. Clearly, we support them, but it’s really a better question for State.”

Regarding the roles, ISS partners will have on the commercial space stations that NASA, she commented: “There’s a varying level of urgency among our international partners about how much they want to engage in that.”

According to her “some are definitely thinking about it, and some are less concerned. My personal belief is that there’s tremendous value in government-to-government agreements.”

As “They help smooth over some of the policy issues…. We’ve got some time to work that out. I’m more focused on the moon-to-Mars agreements and getting that in place.”

As was previously reported, the European Union refused to work with Russia on a Mars expedition. Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, stated that Russia will be able to execute a Martian expedition on its own in a few years.

Image Credit: Getty

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