NASA watches over South Ossetia

...working from the discretionary task list, Oleg Kononenko conducted another session of the Russian GFI-8 "Uragan" (hurricane) earth-imaging program, using the D2X digital camera with the F800 telephoto lens and the HVR-Z1J SONY video camera.   Uplinked target areas were glaciers on the north slope of the main Caucasus Ridge, the Dombai region, after-effects of border conflict operations in the Caucasus...

"The Space Station together with its additions of evolutionary capability will remain a civil station, and its operation and utilization will be for peaceful purposes, in accordance with international law," reads Article 14 of the agreement.

Apparently with that language in mind, Russia's space agency Roscosmos informed the U.S. space agency that Kononenko's actions two days after Russian forces moved into South Ossetia were not military in nature.

"Roscosmos informed us that the pictures were requested to support potential humanitarian activities in the area, including serious water resource management issues," said a spokesman for NASA's Office of External Relations, who added that NASA was not pursuing the matter.

While the fighting in South Ossetia has severely strained U.S./Russian relations, the nature of the two nations' cooperation on the ISS makes it extremely difficult for either side to withdraw from the 1998 agreement.

The U.S. depends on Russian Soyuz vehicles docked to the station for crew rescue in case of an emergency in orbit, and will rely on them at least temporarily for crew access to the station once the space shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.  But NASA provides essential utilities on the station, including most electrical power, and Russia needs those systems and the U.S. astronauts who are trained to operate them to conduct on-board operations.