NASA Wary of Relying on Russia (Moscow soon to be lone carrier/space stn.)

[kskiska]

Source: WP

Moscow Soon to Be Lone Carrier of Astronauts to Space Station

Tomorrow night, a European spacecraft is scheduled to blast off from French Guiana on its maiden voyage to the international space station, giving NASA and the world a new way to reach the orbiting laboratory.

For NASA, however, the launch of the Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) also highlights a stark reality: In 2 1/2 years, just as the station gets fully assembled, the United States will no longer have any spacecraft of its own capable of carrying astronauts and cargo to the station, in which roughly $100 billion is being invested. The three space shuttles will be retired by then, because of their high cost and questionable safety, and NASA will have nothing ready to replace them until 2015 at the earliest.

For five years or more, the United States will be dependent on the technology of others to reach the station, which American taxpayers largely paid for. To complicate things further, the only nation now capable of flying humans to the station is Russia, giving it a strong bargaining position to decide what it wants to charge for the flights at a time when U.S.-Russian relations are becoming increasingly testy.

In addition, some fear the price will be paid not only in billions of dollars but also in lost American prestige and lost leverage on the Russians when it comes to issues such as aiding Iran with its nuclear program.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/06/AR2008030604070.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

[Recursion]

1. Better. Faster. Cheaper.

The problem is, we forgot that you can only have 2 of those at once. And now we have none.

[lapfog_1]

3. What we forgot was that the Shuttle was the "mercury capsule"

of space shuttles. A prototype.

The next generation shuttle should have been built in the 1990's

[Blue State Bandit]

2. Sobering.

[Robbien]

4. We had to choose. Bombs or space stations

Being a warmongering nation has consequences.

[bronxiteforever]

5. But But we are going to mars and the moon according to Shrub. NASA

has been trashed by the GOP for years now.

"NASA was given a vision, but neither the budget nor the political support to make it happen," said Joan Johnson-Freese, chair of the Department of National Security Studies at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. "That has to be addressed by the next administration."

lan P. Boss, a planet-formation theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, said Bush is supportive of scientific research and exploration superficially, but not in practice.

"Most of the major science priorities in the vision, such as the Mars Sample Return mission and imaging extrasolar Earths, have been drastically reduced, delayed, or eliminated because of the shortage of funds to accomplish all of the worthy tasks in the vision," Boss said.

more here http://www.livescience.com/technology/080130-bush-legacy.html

[mainegreen]

6. I think that's part of why the X prize was held.

To try and kick start some diversification.

[tom_paine]

7. LOL. Third World Countries like Imperial Amerika don't go to space.

You had to figure that our First World past was going to run out of fumes to disguise our transitional present and Third World future.

I'm sorry, I just have to laugh.

Imperial Amerika can no more support as space program than the Khmer Rouge could. We are living off the fumes of the past. When they run out, we will finally and fully see what the Punultimate and Finals Solutions the bushies have planned for us peasant and few remaining Free Americans.

Trust me, it won't be pretty. We can only how the wretched remnants of the old, dead American Republic (1776-2000, RIP) will last as long as possible.

[crimsonblue]

8. Thanks be to Cheney..

One of Cheney's only real jobs as VP is as the head of NASA. But exploring the universe and pushing the limits of mankind (which will be useful when we have to eventually leave the planet in 100 years or so) does nothign to kill "terrists" and funding has declined in every year of the Bush empire. Then again, they feel there's no need to explore space, because Armageddon will occur in the middle east soon and Jesus will descend on a white horse and save the day.... :sarcasm: I mean, it's not like NASA gave us anything cool or useful, like velcro, tang, an understanding of the universe, or the ability for global communications...

[Up2Late]

9. Obama's Education Rollout -- "Obama would delay funding for the NASA Constellation...for five years"

"...Though Obama called for a renewed investment in math and science education, his plan would actually pull money from the federal government's greatest investments and achievements in math and science. Obama would delay funding for the NASA Constellation program for five years, though he would maintain the $500 million in funding the program would receive for its manufacturing and technology base, in order to help fund his education policy. The campaign did not say how much money delaying the program would provide.

The plan would also be paid for through the auctioning off of surplus public land, closing the CEO pay deductibility loophole, reduce costs of standardized procurement and through the some of the money that would be saved by ending the war in Iraq...."

<http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/11/20/474908.aspx>

Btw, what exactly does he mean by "surplus public land"?:shrug:

[gratuitous]

10. So NASA is wary of relying on Russia?

I suppose they're worried that the Russians will treat us roughly the same way we've treated them in the last 20-30 years. I'd be worried about that, too. Sooner or later, even bullies get old, and some of your caretakers might just remember what a prick you were.

I'm not looking forward to America's day (more like years) of reckoning, but nobody can say we haven't earned it.