NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy (left), along with Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov (center) and Alexander Misurkin (right), on the International Space Station, Sept. 10, 2013. NASA

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said Tuesday that cooperation with Russia on the International Space Station has not been disrupted by rising diplomatic tensions over the crisis in Ukraine.

"Right now, everything is normal in our relationship with the Russians," Bolden said.

"I think people lose track of the fact that we have occupied the International Space Station now for 13 consecutive years uninterrupted, and that has been through multiple international crises," he said. "I don't think it's an insignificant fact that we are starting to see a number of people with the idea that the International Space Station be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. It's not trivial."

Bolden urged Congress to fully fund development of commercial manned spacecraft to end U.S. reliance on Russia to ferry astronauts to and from the space station. He said the Obama administration's $17.5 billion budget request for NASA in fiscal 2015 will maintain American leadership on the high frontier.

Since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, and in the absence of earlier funding to develop a follow-on manned spacecraft, NASA has been dependent on the the Russians to launch crews to the space station aboard three-seat Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft.

The International Space Station

As part of a new space policy implemented by the Obama administration in 2010-11, NASA is overseeing a competition to develop a commercial American manned spacecraft to restore independent access to space.

The administration asked for $850 million for commercial manned spaceflight in its fiscal 2012 budget request, but Congress approved just $397 million, a cut that pushed the first NASA flight to the station back one year to 2017.

The administration requested $830 million in its fiscal 2013 budget. Early debate in the House called for limiting the scope of the contract to a single company but a compromise eventually was reached that would provide $525 million. NASA received $696 million for commercial crew operations in fiscal 2014.

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NASA: Our relationship with Russia remains normal despite Ukraine crisis