ISS entanglements

As per yesterday's news conference, just in case you missed it, NOTHING will get Ares I Orion Constellation going by 2015.

It's game over, NASA.

Posted by Commie Librul at 08/12/08 06:10:52

On suprise to me. Those who promote major joint space projects seem to ignore the fact that they depend on the good will of all parties in the meantime.

If Georgia had happened during the Shuttle-Orion gap and we chose to impose sanctions on the Russians, what happens to ISS access?

If China were in the mix, what if they began saber-rattling over Taiwan?

Remember, England and France almost couldn't finish Concorde together...

Posted by Frank Glover at 08/12/08 14:04:26

One of the worst things that the USA can do now is to get into an attitude of "us vs. them" and try to re-ignite the cold war in a new version.

What has been going on in Russia is nearly complete neglect and mere lip service on the part of American foreign policy toward encouraging democratic reforms and openness in Russia. Russia under Putin is a substantially different place than it was under Yeltsin, both in terms of overall policies and even constitutionally in Russia... where Putin has gradually acquired more and more political power that he might as well be called "Secretary-General" or "Tszr of all Russia".

American foreign policy actions have in a great many cases pushed the Russian people to accept these changes and have not addressed very legitimate concerns of the Russian people toward their own national interest.

In terms of being involved with Russia by purchasing missile hardware (in the form of spacecraft launchers and equipment)... I still think it is an outstanding idea. One thing the good ol' USSR developed rather well was an infrastructure in space sciences that certainly was on a level equal to that of the USA, and had developed their program completely independently as well. On a practical matter, this means they have different strengths and weaknesses.

Make no mistake about it, the ISS was primarily an American attempt to transfer the knowledge gained by Russia under the Soviet era to perform construction in space. Soviet projects like Mir and Salyut really were impressive projects, and the ISS has to a large degree been very successful in that regard.

Of secondary importance... and this is critical to remember... the ISS has been a Russian technical jobs program by the U.S. Congress to keep intelligent and skilled workers engaged and working on "peaceful" application of their skills rather than having to get into the business of building ICBMs for Iran and North Korea. As to if there is wisdom in doing this and "worth it" in the long run to American taxpayers is certainly something to debate, but that does seem to be the overall goal. Oh, and I guess it does provide an even larger technical jobs program here in America as well, but I digress here.

The main thing I want to point out is that even though it seems incongruous for American astronauts to be "working with the enemy" so to say and seeing billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars getting dumped into Russia, in the long run nothing much has really changed. The original purposes for becoming involved with Russia on the ISS are still valid, and the diplomatic ties that come with it are still going to be useful in the future.

The USA needs Russia for a great many reasons, and it isn't useful to get into a war mentality here.

Posted by Robert Horning at 08/13/08 06:17:17

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