NASA's Breakup with Russia?

[gwillybj]

I'm not sure if this is someone's knee-jerk reaction or legitimate reporting?:

NASA's breakup with Russia is a manipulative money grab

NASA ordered its officials to put an end to communications with Russian government officials and scientists yesterday. The order was leaked through an internal memo, obtained by The Verge, in which the US space agency explained that teleconferences, email exchanges, and meetings with Russian officials were to cease immediately.

This ban excludes the International Space Station (ISS) — NASA sent an American astronaut to the station in a Russian capsule just last week — and doesn't pertain to interactions that occur during meetings with multiple countries beyond Russian soil.

"This NASA statement is dismaying beyond belief," says James Oberg, a former rocket scientist and author of Star-Crossed Orbits, a book about US-Russian space missions. "It's dismaying that NASA officials would be directed to use this crisis to score domestic political points on behalf of the White House."

Marco Cáceres, senior analyst and director of space studies at Teal Group, is also perturbed. "It sounds like they are trying to use the crisis [in Crimea] as a way to increase NASA's funding," he says, "but it's a disingenuous way of making the case, especially since there are a lot of other good reasons to increase NASA's budget."

Even though NASA's message no longer appears motivated by Russia's interventions in the Ukraine, it could still damage NASA-Russia relations. "For a few years we have been dependent on their transportation, which is maybe awkward, but it was manageable," Oberg says. Ordering NASA employees to cease communicating with Russia could jeopardize the future of the US space program. "There are some steps in space that once undone can't be easily redone," he says, "and I have little confidence that either side is acting rationally at this point."

Cáceres says he is more concerned with NASA's prediction that the agency will be able to launch from US soil as early as 2017. Even with a marked increase in NASA funding, he says, the likelihood of a US-based launch is minuscule because NASA doesn't currently have access to a viable means of transportation to the ISS. "There really isn't any great option in terms of a vehicle," he says. "Even if you were to increase [NASA's] budget by 10 or 20 percent — maybe even 50 — you still wouldn't have a good way of getting up there."

Cáceres says that although NASA is developing a heavy-lift rocket system called the Space Launch System, it won't be ready for a crewed spaceflight before 2021. Moreover, von der Dunk says it will be a few years before private US operations such as SpaceX and Orbital Sciences can provide flights to and from the ISS. "The only means of access to the ISS for astronauts is the Russian Soyuz system. There's no alternative."

https://www.facebook.com/telescopesnmore/posts/516707261775005

[Buster's Uncle]

Politicians have been the ruination of NASA since I was a little kid and the Apollo program was still going.  There's not a lot wrong with the institution that somehow forcing out short-sighted political interference wouldn't fix fast.  -And there's A LOT wrong.