The politics of NASA are weird. It’s hard to justify their budget. Their mission is part national security and part straight-up scientific discovery and exploration. There’s a whole Star Trek element of international cooperation to it that has allowed them to not only work with the Russians but to become reliant on them. And now NASA has suddenly cut off nearly all contact with Russia.
Getting that nakedly political definitely cuts against the spirit of the program, and I don’t expect too many employees there to be very thrilled about the decision. Politicians, however, like to be able to say that we’re “getting tough” with the Russians. I think it’s pretty stupid. I think we’re shooting ourselves in the foot.
