Today, it is time to shut this space-cash pipeline down. Starting with $400 million in cash sent to Russia in 1993, NASA began subsidizing Roscosmos, Russia’s version of NASA. The Clinton policy was meant to prevent Russian rocket scientists from fleeing the collapsed Soviet Union to go work for rogue nations wanting to build intercontinental and space-accessible missiles. Through decades of reversals and failures in executive and legislative branch policies, NASA has been directed into a quagmire of critical technical dependencies on the Russians that make operating the International Space Station virtually impossible without Russian support.ĭuring the Clinton era, NASA was ordered to use its soft power influence to keep Russian rocket scientists gainfully employed through cash reimbursements for Russian work on the then-fledgling International Space Station. Government agencies still deeply enmeshed with the Russian government.

It is also morally wrong to support Putin’s corrupt regime and its illegal war against Ukraine through space cooperation. Rising political tensions are a risk to our space station astronauts’ safety. national security and the security of our allies. Continued space partnering with Russia is an obvious threat to U.S. We cannot continue to collaborate in space exploration with Putin’s regime.

Russian space station