NASA and the White House have drawn up the contingency plans last year for the International Space Station within the light of tensions with Moscow that got started before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The US space agency's game planning has been showcasing that the US has been juggling its relationship with Russia, an important ally on the international space station project, which would include such corporate names as Boeing, SpaceX and Northrup Grumman.

HIGHLIGHTS
NASA and White House officials have admitted on the existence of contingency plans 
ISS was designed to be interdependent between NASA and Roscosmos
NASA has declined to address the specific contingency plans

The two-decade old alliance is at risk, where NASA has sought to preserve the few remaining link of civil cooperation between the two superpowers.

The plans which were drafted by the US officials that have laid out ways in which they could pull all astronauts off the station only if Russia has to abruptly leave. It has been kept it running without any crucial hardware has been provided by the Russian space agency, and has potentially dispose of the orbital laboratory years earlier than it was planned.

While NASA and White House officials have acknowledged the existence of contingency plans before they have avoided the discussion with them in public so that it could avoid inflaming tensions with Russia. Instead NASA officials have stressed out the close relationship they have with Russia's space agency, Roscosmos.

NASA's space operations chief Kathy Lueders have mentioned in an interview last week that 'We have been very committed, obviously, to us with continuing this relationship.' Kathy has added that 'We have to make sure that we tend to have plans. We are NASA. We tend to have contingencies always.'

Two-decades ago the ISS was designed to be technically interdependent between NASA and Roscosmos. Well, on one side NASA tend to provide gyroscopes for the space station’s balance and solar arrays for electricity and on the other hand, Roscosmos has been controlling the propulsion that would keep the football field-sized laboratory in orbit.

As per the sources, multiple space companies were seen to pull into the planning with Boeing which is one of the station's key private contractors. It is the one who has been assigning a team of engineers to look at ways in which the space station could be controlled without the Russia's thrusters.

In recent weeks it has been seen that NASA has worked on drafting a proper request to contractors for methods to deorbit the space station earlier than it was planned in case Russia was found to withdraw from the alliance. Russia has to manage the station's thrusters from Moscow by playing an important role in steering the station into the Earth’s atmosphere towards the end of its life.

The newly appointed space chief, Yuri Borisov was quoted last week by the Russian news agencies mentioning that the country has not set a date for its withdrawal from the ISS but any pullout would be made 'in strict accordance with our obligations.' The station's intergovernmental agreement would need any of its partners to convey a one-year notice of intent to leave.

NASA has mentioned in an interview that Roscosmos had asked two years ago if the US space agency might give a spacecraft to aid in this deorbiting method.

NASA has declined to address the specific contingency plans that was considered, however it has mentioned that it was 'continually searching for new capabilities on the space station and have been planning for a seamless transition to commercially operated destinations in low-Earth orbit.'

The agency has taken an effort to seed development of private space stations that would succeed the ISS once it has planned an end date of 2030.

Also Read: Russia is All Set to Leave International Space Station by 2024