One huge collaborative effort that suddenly is endangered - the joint NASA and Russian space program.

What does the Ukraine invasion mean for US-Russian partnership in space?

Could Russia's military and political actions in Ukraine upend science and exploration in outer space?

International political tensions are high after Russia invaded Ukraine this week, with attacks beginning near the capital Kyiv as well as in Kharkiv near the Russian border. The world hasn't witnessed a "move like this, nation state-to-nation state, since World War II ... certainly nothing on this size and scope and scale," a senior U.S. defense official told reporters today (Feb. 24), CNN reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin "has put himself on the wrong side of history," leaders of a G7 meeting said in a joint statement today, according to CNN. The meeting included U.S. President Joe Biden, who has previously voiced support for Ukraine in this conflict, among other world leaders.

The U.S. and Russia have collaborated in space for decades, but this recent action by Russia raises questions about its potential effects in space. . . .

While this mission saw the two nations briefly coming together, what came later saw the U.S. and Russia collaborate on a much larger scale, specifically in regard to the International Space Station (ISS) program as well as sharing rides to the station aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

"I think part of the intent of the ISS program was to ... have a program where the U.S. and Russian space sectors were so closely tied together that it became sort of unthinkable to have conflict," David Burbach, a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island, told Space.com. (Burbach's statements are personal and do not reflect the opinion of the U.S. Navy.)

This is the stuff of science fiction stories, possibly come to life.