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posted by janrinok on Thursday May 01 2014, @12:36AM   Printer-friendly
from the who-will-blink-first dept.

Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has lashed out again, this time at newly announced US ban on high-tech exports to Russia suggesting that "after analyzing the sanctions against our space industry, I propose the US delivers its astronauts to the ISS with a trampoline." Rogozin does actually have a point, although his threats carry much less weight than he may hope. Russia is due to get a $457.9 million payment for its services soon and few believe that Russia would actually give it up.

Furthermore, as Jeffrey Kluger noted at Time Magazine, Russia may not want to push the United States into the hands of SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, two private American companies that hope to be able to send passengers to the station soon. SpaceX and Orbital Sciences have already made successful unmanned resupply runs to the ISS and both are also working on upgrading their cargo vehicles to carry people. SpaceX is currently in the lead and expects to launch US astronauts, employed by SpaceX itself, into orbit by 2016. NASA is building its own heavy-lift rocket for carrying astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit, but it won't be ready for anything but test flights until after 2020. "That schedule, of course, could be accelerated considerably if Washington gave NASA the green light and the cash," says Kluger. "America's manned space program went from a standing start in 1961 to the surface of the moon in 1969-eight years from Al Shepard to Tranquility Base. The Soviet Union got us moving then. Perhaps Russia will do the same now."

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Geezer on Thursday May 01 2014, @10:25AM

    by Geezer (511) on Thursday May 01 2014, @10:25AM (#38425)

    Yes.

    Putin has Obama et al pegged for the incompetent pussies they are. This gives him leverage, which he has every intention of using in his mission to re-constitute the USSR as a super-nationalistic state-capitalist monolith.

    The danger is when the bumblers in Washington and the Hague feel like they need to save their images by "standing up" to Putin.

    Regardless of whatever action the West may or may not take, escalation in a certainty. Neither side will be willing to "lose face".

    Pride doth indeed goeth before a fall.

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  • (Score: 1) by NeoNormal on Thursday May 01 2014, @03:20PM

    by NeoNormal (2516) on Thursday May 01 2014, @03:20PM (#38525)

    > Pride doth indeed goeth before a fall.

    Putin is the one demonstrating an excess of pride at the moment, IMO.

    The Sochi Olympics ceremonies were filled with "look at us and what we've done" moments. I'm not saying I don't have respect for the positives that Russia has contributed to the world, but they don't need to yell "look at me, look at me".