Discovery Magazine reports that in a landmark decision Russia has announced initial plans to build a new orbital space station together with NASA to replace the International Space Station (ISS), which is set to operate until 2024.
Igor Komarov, the head of Russia's Roscosmos space agency, made the announcement flanked by NASA administrator Charles Bolden at Russia's Baikonur launchpad in Kazakhstan. "Roscosmos together with NASA will work on the programme of a future orbital station," said Komarov. "We agreed that the group of countries taking part in the ISS project will work on the future project of a new orbital station." Russia had said earlier this year it planned to create its own space station after 2024 using its modules from the ISS after it is mothballed. The two agencies will be unifying their standards and systems of manned space programs, according to Komarov. “This is very important to future missions and stations.”
The next goal for the two agencies is a joint mission to Mars said NASA chief Charles Bolden. “Our area of cooperation will be Mars. We are discussing how best to use the resources, the finance, we are setting time frames and distributing efforts in order to avoid duplication.”
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NASA may sell/lease parts of the International Space Station in the next decade:
NASA has signalled its intention to offload the International Space Station (ISS) some time in the 2020s. News of the sale appeared in the video below, at about the 14:15 mark [YouTube] when Bill Hill, NASA's deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, ponders the ISS' role in future missions.
"Ultimately our desire is to hand the space station to either a commercial entity or some other commercial capability so that research can continue in low-Earth orbit. We figure that will be around the mid-20s."
Hill and the other speakers in the video explain how NASA is preparing for a crewed Mars mission and outline how the agency is now well and truly in the market for ideas about how to get it done.
Also at SpaceFlight Insider and TechCrunch.
Related:
Russia to Build New Space Station with NASA after ISS
Russia Investigates Downsizing Space Station Crew From Three to Two
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).
Previously:
NASA Suspends Collaboration with Russia
Russia to Build New Space Station with NASA after ISS
NASA and Roscosmos Sign Joint Statement on the Development of a Lunar Space Station
Russia Assembles Engineering Group for Lunar Activities and the Deep Space Gateway
China Will Focus on a Lunar Surface Station Rather than a Lunar Orbiting Station
NASA and Roscosmos Release Joint Statement on ISS Leak Amid Rumors
Related:
NASA and International Partners Planning Orbital Lunar Outpost
President Trump Praises Falcon Heavy, Diminishes NASA's SLS Effort
NASA's Chief of Human Spaceflight Rules Out Use of Falcon Heavy for Lunar Station
This Week in Space Pessimism: SLS, Mars, and Lunar Gateway
NASA Administrator Ponders the Fate of SLS in Interview
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Could Launch Japanese and European Payloads to Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway
Russia Wants to Extend U.S. Space Partnership. Or It Could Turn to China.
The American incentives for engaging with Russia in space in the 1990s — political goals like the employment of idle rocket scientists to prevent missile proliferation — have mostly disappeared with the resumption of tensions. The Trump administration has already proposed that by 2025 the United States should stop supporting the International Space Station that is the principal joint project today. A final decision is up to Congress. The American role might be shifted to a commercial footing thereafter.
[...] [It] is unclear how much longer the post-Soviet era of space cooperation between the United States and Russia can last in the more hostile environment now surrounding relations. In the interview, [Dmitri O. Rogozin, the director of Russia's space agency,] said Russia wanted to carry on joint flights with the United States and its allies, despite the tensions over election interference, wars in Syria and Ukraine, and the chemical weapons poisoning of a former double agent in Britain.
[...] Analysts say Moscow has a strong incentive to maintain the joint program: a decided lack of money to pursue a lunar station on its own. Russia's budget for its space program is something less than one-10th what the United States spends on NASA. [...] Russia's preference is to press on with a space program entwined with the United States', on either the lunar program or another venture, Mr. Rogozin said. But if talks fail, Russia can turn to China or India for partnership. There might then be two stations circling the Earth or the moon, one led by the United States the other a Russian-Chinese enterprise. Mr. Rogozin even floated the idea of a "BRIC station," the acronym for the developing economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Mr. Rogozin in November ordered the Russian Academy of Sciences to study the prospects for a solo Russian program to build a habitable base on the surface of the moon. Ivan M. Moiseyev, the director of the Institute of Space Policy in Moscow, said in a telephone interview that any proposal for a lone Russian lunar station was fantastical, given the budget constraints. "The technical capability exists, but the finances don't."
The U.S. and NASA could develop stronger partnerships with the European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Indian Space Research Organisation instead.
Previously:
NASA Suspends Collaboration with Russia
Russia to Build New Space Station with NASA after ISS
NASA and International Partners Planning Orbital Lunar Outpost
NASA and Roscosmos Sign Joint Statement on the Development of a Lunar Space Station
Russia Assembles Engineering Group for Lunar Activities and the Deep Space Gateway
Russian Space Chief Vows to Find "Full Name" of Technician Who Caused ISS Leak
NASA and Roscosmos Release Joint Statement on ISS Leak Amid Rumors
Head of Russian Space Agency Roscosmos Wavers on Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway
Soyuz Rocket Carrying Crew Successfully Launches and Docks with ISS
Related: Price War Between SpaceX and Russia
(Score: 5, Informative) by AnonTechie on Monday March 30 2015, @06:24AM
NASA Says No Plans for ISS Replacement with Russia:
NASA said March 28 it welcomed a Russian commitment to continue operations of the International Space Station beyond 2020, but indicated there were no firm plans to work together on a successor space station.
The agency responded to comments made by the head of Roscosmos, Igor Komarov, earlier in the day that suggested the two space agencies had not only agreed to extend operations of the ISS to 2024, but also to replace the ISS with a new station of some kind after 2024.
http://spacenews.com/nasa-says-no-plans-for-iss-replacement-with-russia/ [spacenews.com]
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday March 30 2015, @06:31AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday March 30 2015, @08:02AM
Strong words front country that can't out a man in space
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 30 2015, @02:41PM
Well, since we don't have that Putin unhealthy obsession with homosexuality, we don't feel we need to out any of our astronauts.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday March 30 2015, @03:59PM
On the other hand, if you're ever going to out someone, space is probably the best place to do it...
"our leading man was so gay,
he nearly flew away.
Where did we go right?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 30 2015, @04:47PM
Translation of the NASA answer: "Russia is the new devil according to the policy of the day. We can't paint our politicians bad by cooperating!"
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 30 2015, @06:43AM
Quick, somebody tell me if the Rooshkies are good guys or bad guys now. I don't know what to think.
(Score: 3, Funny) by geb on Monday March 30 2015, @11:15AM
Unreliable would be a better description.
They've done some bad things, but as the russian astroturf army is keen to point out with their constant whataboutism, so has everybody else.
What makes Russia stand out is constant wavering between patriotic isolationism and trying to make friends.
"We don't need you. We don't need anybody! Russia is strong!"
"Come join our international project! Trust us with your money! You can trust us, because we need you."
(Score: 5, Funny) by VLM on Monday March 30 2015, @02:52PM
They're bipolar and we're tripolar with an extra third state of "bomb the hell out of some random brown country".
You take the two craziest most unpredictable girlfriends you've had, you've met, you've ever heard of, and reality TV show style make them roommates, and you pretty much got USA/Russia international relations for the last century or so, complete with screaming fights and alliances and grudges and just sheer madness.
Fundamentally both cultures make a big deal out of masculinity and forbidding women from leadership positions while pretending not to do so to keep them pacified, and then comically both act like two stereotypical hormonal teenage girls with severe PMS locked in a reality TV apartment together. It would be pretty funny if it weren't so dangerous.
"I cannot believe you dared to post on facebook that deploying my long range ballistic missile make my butt look fat" "I only did that because you were flirting with that cute Cuban guy you know I used to hate because they were connected to the JFK assassination back when grannie was our age but now I have a crush on him because he's just so cute and everyone other than me likes him anyway so now I like him too" "So what, a boy on twitter posted that you swallowed half of eastern Europe and liked doing it and I wasn't surprised to read that at all"
(Score: 3, Funny) by kaszz on Monday March 30 2015, @09:32AM
Does this mean that the Russian army will free those ethnic Russians on Mars from the fascist dust on Mars? :P
(Score: 2) by sudo rm -rf on Monday March 30 2015, @10:21AM
Roskosmos' plans to re-use the russian modules for another space station are not new. Neither is the idea to seek collaboration with other space agencies like NASA or ESA. The code-name for the project is OPSEK [wikipedia.org], the Russian abbr. for "Orbital Piloted Assembly and Experiment Complex".
More information can be found here [russianspaceweb.com] (2009)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 30 2015, @05:09PM
> OPSEK
From the headline I thought it was going to be a russification of opsec - that they were going to use the joint program to conduct a little industrial espionage on the american space program...
(Score: 2) by tibman on Tuesday March 31 2015, @01:36AM
You're thinking of SAEDA : )
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 30 2015, @11:35AM
So, let's see...
Russia is upgrading their military:
http://uk.businessinsider.com/russias-military-upgrade-wont-be-stopped-2015-3?r=US [businessinsider.com]
And leaving ISS to create their own space station *while* colonizing the Moon:
http://rt.com/news/157800-russia-moon-colonization-plan/ [rt.com]
At the same time they are running out foreign currency:
http://uk.businessinsider.com/russian-currency-reserves-are-running-out-2015-2?r=US [businessinsider.com]
... and price of brent is in 50 dollars.
Something tells me that the Russians are heading into some serious monetary problems in the near future.
(Score: 2) by TLA on Monday March 30 2015, @05:29PM
because they're running out of foreign cash??
What, their mineral and hydrocarbon wealth is nothing? Fuck's sake, they supply gas to half of Europe! They're NOT going broke ANY time soon!
Excuse me, I think I need to reboot my horse. - NCommander
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Monday March 30 2015, @06:22PM
"because they're running out of foreign cash??
What, their mineral and hydrocarbon wealth is nothing? Fuck's sake, they supply gas to half of Europe! They're NOT going broke ANY time soon!"
Must have missed the if you spend more than you take in you are broke/on the way to going broke lesson. Not really surprising you did with the mentality of most people in the world today...
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 2) by morgauxo on Tuesday March 31 2015, @07:06PM
"price of brent is in 50 dollars."
Ahh.. there's the crux of what is really bothering you. You are complaining about the price of your favorite russian gigolo!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by morgauxo on Monday March 30 2015, @01:07PM
Another expensive spacecraft that only circles the earth like a kid on a trike that isn't allowed to cross the street.
Way to ensure that yet another generation goes nowhere!