PARIS, March 22, /ITAR-TASS/. The United States in the space area is more dependent on Russia than Russia on the United States, John Logsdon, an American scientist, a member of the NASA Advisory Council, said in an interview to France Press in Washington, when asked whether astronauts would not be carried by Russian rockets to the International Space Station in connection with the current situation over Ukraine.
The United States and Russia were mutually dependent to ensure the ISS functioning, Logsdon said. He believes the station cannot work successfully without the support of the American mission control centre based in Texas. Thus, Russia needs support of the American side, but not to the same degree as the United States needs Russia, he noted.
Logsdon believes risks that astronauts will not travel aboard Russian spacecraft to the ISS are not more than 20-25 percent. Such a step would lead to a real catastrophe, since it would be very difficult to ensure functioning of the station, he said.
NASA official spokesman Allard Beutel said that they did not expect the Russian-Ukrainian situation to affect long-time cooperation between the United States and Russia in the civil space area.