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posted by chromas on Monday September 24 2018, @05:12PM   Printer-friendly

Russia throws doubt on joint lunar space station with U.S.: RIA

Moscow may abandon a project to build a space station in lunar orbit in partnership with U.S. space agency NASA because it does not want a "second fiddle role," a Russian official said on Saturday.

[...] [The] head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said Russia might exit the joint program and instead propose its own lunar orbit space station project.

[...] A spokesman for Roscosmos said later that Russia had no immediate plans to leave the project. "Russia has not refused to take part in the project of the lunar orbit station with the USA," Vladimir Ustimenko was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency.

FLOP-G?

Also at ABC (Associated Press).

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Monday September 24 2018, @07:21PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday September 24 2018, @07:21PM (#739349) Journal

    1. You listed a bunch of Soviet Union space achievements, which is why I mentioned it. Russia is weaker than the Soviet Union and not engaging in a "space race". If we have a space race with any country going forward, it will probably be China.

    2. Russia's unimpressive rockets are an important piece of the overall picture. Their space program is shit, and they have no plans to effectively compete with SpaceX. Note that this is not just a problem for Roscosmos, but also Arianespace and others.

    3. LOP-G is designed to give the military industrial complex some pork money to build a destination for the U.S. pork rocket: the Space Launch System. Most of the components appear to be U.S.-built and planned to launch using the SLS Block 1B. Yes, Russia is playing "second fiddle", at least under the current plans. They would be wasting their time and money by participating in what amounts to a U.S. stimulus package to certain U.S. companies.

    The U.S. has all the technology needed to put people into space. What they get with Soyuz is a relatively cheap [businessinsider.com], cramped ride that only goes to the ISS, which is the only place the U.S. wants to send humans at this point anyway. It was a good deal while it lasted, although the price has increased greatly over the years, but soon SpaceX and maybe Boeing's offerings will be better. The Soyuz reliability record is not shared by their other rockets.

    In retrospect, the U.S. lack of a domestic manned spaceflight provider has been a great thing. The gap allowed SpaceX to get lucrative contracts to deliver cargo and soon humans to the ISS. If the company succeeds with BFR, the consequences will be enormous.

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