The tension between US and Russia over Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity has begun to take toll on space operations. In a statement, NASA has announced that it will halt most of its ongoing engagement with Russia.

However, the US space agency has cleared that it will continue joint operation of the International Space Station. Well, this is significant for NASA as it relies on Russia to carry its researchers to the International Space Station ever since its space shuttle retired in 2011.

NASA has to pay a colossal amount to Russia to ferry its astronauts to the ISS, but thanks to Orbital Sciences and SpaceX that helped the US space agency deliver cargo to the station without relying on Russia.

China is the only country after Russia, which is currently operating spaceflights. But, the US and China do not have any joint operations for space projects.

"Given Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, NASA is suspending the majority of its ongoing engagements with the Russian Federation", NASA said in a statement, quoted by space. com.

The space. com report said that the suspension will not have any adverse effect on meetings organized outside Russia that may include Russian officials. But mutual visits between Russian and NASA officials will not take place anymore including halts to emails and teleconferences, said the letter from a top NASA official.

NASA took strict action after the standoff over Ukraine continued to escalate. And, it announced today that nearly all ties with its Russian counterpart Roscosmos will be suspended. Operations on the ISS are the only exceptions that have been made by the US.

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said last month that everything was normal with the Russians. But things have gone worse now and the US has reported to bring an end to the ties it had with Russia over space technology.