The longstanding NASA-Russian partnership in space may be unraveling

It looks like Russia's lack of resources is finally beginning to have a deep impact on their ability to keep pace and cooperate with us in space, and politics are creeping into the picture also.

The longstanding NASA-Russian partnership in space may be unraveling
Russia is less and less a space super power.

...
"Their space industry appears to have lost—for the indefinite future—the capacity to fabricate station-class modules, just as for the last three decades they have lost and failed at every attempt to rebuild their ability to launch and operate science probes to the moon and planets," Oberg said. "It’s a cruelly accurate quip to assert that one can count the number of successful Russian deep-space missions in those 30 years on the fingers of no hands."

The reality is that Russia presently has a serviceable orbital taxi in the Soyuz rocket and spacecraft, but beyond the partnership on the International Space Station, Russia has little prospect of building a station of its own within a decade. And every year, Oberg said, more of its experienced cadre of engineers and technicians retire, taking their hard-won knowledge and judgment with them.

"It is not a good trend for them or for the rest of the world that benefits from their productive presence, in cooperation and in competition, out in space," Oberg said.
...
> https://arstechnica.com/science/201...ssian-partnership-in-space-may-be-unraveling/

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There is good news for the future of our manned space missions, however:

Astronauts will launch into space from U.S. soil next year, says NASA

By Rick Docksai | 15 hours ago
NASA is on track to send its first crewed mission into space from a U.S. launch pad by mid-2019, said NASA Administrator James Bridenstine. He said that his space agency and private company SpaceX expect to launch a test flight of a crewed space vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in April 2019, and launch more astronauts in a test flight of a Boeing-made vehicle soon after.

...

Both test flights will fly to the International Space Station and back. They will be the first U.S.-based transportation to the ISS, which astronauts currently can only reach by hitching rides out of Kazakhstan on Russia's Soyuz space vehicles.

> https://thespacereporter.com/articl...e-from-u-s-soil-next-year-says-nasa&id=164312

 

@Durandal

Not smart to sell the Russians short.

If not the rockets, aerospace components.


Moi
I remember Sputnik.
They killed Laika

FREE Meng Wanzhou!
​

 

Whatever. The facts are the facts.

 

It was stupid to enter a partnership with the Russians where they've held all the cards. We never should have retired the Shuttle without a replacement vehicle.

 

Who cares.....russias time has come and gone for space.....all the captured german scientists they had after WW2 are all dead.....Sputnik was their "golden moment"!.

 

Yep. Now their space program is stuck in the Soviet era in one area, and completely dysfunctional in most if not all others.

 

They are the ones building our engines to reach outer space, they are the ones getting us back and forth to the space station since the shuttles were grounded???Without them we're screwed.

 

I just don't think they are as "dead in the water" or "space" as imagined.

No doubt learning from space station experience to further long term off Earth
human survival. Maybe a Moon colony?

Or marketing aerospace components.

And the longevity of the Soyuz says something regarding the relatively short life of the shuttle.

If you were to survive off Earth, who would YOU want to built your habitat?


Moi

FREE Meng Wanzhou!
​

 

Totally agree!
Russian space program is reduced to a cab service to LEO. Other than that - nothing to show for the last 30 years. Pathetic!

But hey, they can draw cartoons with missiles!

 

Considering Russia's failures and quality issues of late, not them. I'll take any American-built habitat. I expect the Europeans could do a good job also. The Chinese are still new to all of this, so they would not be high on the list. Ditto Japan and India, though I might pick Japan over China.

 

Yes, and the facts are that US astronauts have been hitching rides to space on Russian systems for quite a few years.

The arrogant hypocrisy of the article you offer is typical in this age.

 

Only because it was economically cheaper to do so, not because of superior technology.

 

USA has no resources to launch anything into space.

 

Only because USA has no money.

 

How did those rovers end up on Mars? Or how did we get pics of Pluto?

And what was the most recent successful space probe launched by Russia?

 

No one cares about space anyway.

When I was a kid, it was one of our priorities. We thought we'd be on Mars in 10 or 20 years. But then the left dragged us into income redistribution and multiculturalism and our priorities changed. Space exploration was abandoned.

It's as if Columbus sailed to America in 1492 and then no one else ever went back.

 

It was long time ago.
US has decided to spend money on New World Order by enriching the BRICS countries along the way.
All remaining money are being spent on Medical Cartel and Military Industrial Complex mafia.

 

InSight landed on Mars on November 26 2018.
A very long time ago!

Mars 2020 will launch next year and will even include a helicopter.

Keep reading russian Pravda!

 

Only a matter of time before the US craps out those russki engines like a bad case of diarrhea....and builds our own....it's not that we cant, lol.

 

We need our own rocket capability instead on relying a hostile power

 

Their engines are the hottest thing on earth.

 

Agreed, but Obama OBVIOUSLY was colluding with the Russians to turn over US manned spaceflight to the red menace. Somebody should have a multiyear investigation about that.

 

There is no money for that.
Money has been stolen.
Sorry man

 

That program has started already and have been paid for.
There is no money for new programs.

 

I I wrote the budget there would be money for that