The way that the rhetoric has been flowing between Russia and the West, and Washington in particular, future joint space programs with the Russians may be in jeopardy, which may impact on NASA's retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2010.
Hopefully this is a momentary glitch in U.S./Russian relations, but if some kind of "new" Cold War starts up again, and relations between the two countries go downhill on a long-term basis, it's difficult to see the Russian and American space agencies continuing to cooperate. It's amazing how much impact a small nation can have on the relations between two big ones.
NASA is currently set to retire the space shuttle in 2010, relying on the Russian Soyuz rockets to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) with supplies and personnel until the new Orion shuttle comes on-line in 2014 or 2015. But with today's crash of the Orion mock-up, it shows that NASA still has a ways to go. (Video here)
But what if the Russians decide not to allow Americans in their Soyuz capsules? NASA may have to extend the life of the shuttle program to keep America in space, which increases the risk every time the shuttle is put through a blast-off, and atmospheric re-entry. Those birds aren't getting any younger. And they haven't been able to fix the foam problem which doomed Columbia.
Hopefully the political problems being batted around between Washington and Moscow won't translate over to the scientific community as well. The international community has invested too much into the ISS and other programs for it to fall apart now.
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