posted 04-29-2014 11:29 AM               

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Originally posted by SpaceAholic:
General Valery Gerasimov (Russian Military Staff Chief of Staff) has just stated that that fresh US sanctions against Moscow could compromise US astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).

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If their aim is to deliver a blow to Russia's rocket-building sector, then by default, they would be exposing their astronauts on the ISS.

Sanctions are always a boomerang which come back and painfully hit those who launched them.

But Rogozin many not have just his country's interests in mind; he may also be worried about his own coffers. As SpaceX's Elon Musk pointed out during a recent press conference, Rogozin is on the list of Russian officials whose financial assets fall under the U.S. sanctions.

How is it that we're sending hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer money at a time when Russia is in the process of invading Ukraine? It would be hard to imagine some way that Dmitry Rogozin is not benefiting personally from the dollars that are being sent there.

After analyzing the sanctions against our space industry, I suggest to the USA to bring their astronauts to the International Space Station using a trampoline.

Sounds like this might be a good time to unveil the new Dragon Mk 2 spaceship that SpaceX has been working on with NASA. No trampoline needed.

posted 05-14-2014 12:23 AM               

Russia cast doubt on the long-term future of the International Space Station, a showcase of post-Cold War cooperation, as it retaliated on Tuesday against U.S. sanctions over Ukraine.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Moscow would reject a U.S. request to prolong the orbiting station's use beyond 2020, and bar Washington from using Russian-made rocket engines to launch military satellites.

Moscow took the action, which also included suspending operation of GPS satellite navigation system sites on its territory from June, in response to U.S. plans to deny export licences for high-technology items that could help the Russian military.

"We are very concerned about continuing to develop high-tech projects with such an unreliable partner as the United States, which politicises everything," Rogozin told a news conference.

posted 05-14-2014 12:25 AM               

1. With ISS gone in 2020 is still need COTS (considers also the Russian ban of rocket engine sales, that affect Atlas V, the launch vehicle for Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corporation).

2. What next for USA? All the funds on SLS/Orion?

3. What next for Russia? Collaboration with China and India, or a Soyuz/Mir 2.0 program integrated with the money of "space tourism"?

4. What next for Europe? Is possible a partnership with NASA for SLS/Orion program (maybe with lander and mission modules built by ESA)?

posted 05-14-2014 12:45 AM               

Keep in mind, pulling out of the ISS hurts Russia too, perhaps even more than it hurts the U.S., and ceasing engine sales to the U.S. only deprives Russia of that capital.

(For its part, United Launch Alliance says they are unaware of any restrictions on RD-180 sales, but as a contingency, it has a two year supply of engines to tide it over as it switches payloads from Atlas to Delta, if necessary.)

posted 05-14-2014 07:03 AM               

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
Rogozin seems to have made his statements without briefing Roscosmos or the other relevant divisions of the government first. Time will tell if his statements were just talk.

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posted 05-14-2014 08:11 AM               

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Originally posted by noroxine:
Here are details.

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This comment was particularly frank:

These could even be international projects, but it would be us who would choose our partners and decide with whom to cooperate in near and outer space exploration.

posted 05-14-2014 10:36 AM            

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Originally posted by Orthon:
This is a surprise? I said a long time ago that it was folly for the United States to believe that politics would not interfere with the operation of the ISS.

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posted 05-14-2014 01:56 PM               

On the same day that Rogozin made his statements, Russia and the United States worked together to bring a crew home safely from the space station — without any interference from politics.

Rogozin knows whatever he says is going to be picked up by the media. He is playing politics through the press (our politicians do the same). Do not confuse his statements with actual actions. Case in point, from NASA:

We have not received any official notification from the Government of Russia on any changes in our space cooperation at this point.

Our recommendation to the partners, and all of the partners have agreed that they're going to look at extending the life of the station to 2024 ... And I would remind everyone, the first two people to sign the proposal to do so were Mr. [Oleg] Ostapenko and me. Mr. Ostapenko [the head of] Roscosmos, the Russian space agency. You're talking about diplomatic action, and I'm talking about just operational interaction between Roscosmos and NASA. So, until we get word from somebody else, then nothing's changed for us right now.

posted 05-14-2014 05:19 PM               

In my opinion, the interesting potential partner will be China. Will they pair up with Russia in space so that they can learn all they need to know from the Russians? The Chinese certainly have had a track record of getting Soviet/Russian technical data and then kicking the Soviets/Russians to the curb. Given that we are talking about the ISS potentially going belly up in 2020 I would think the Chinese would already be well along their space "flight path", and they may not need to play the Russian card.

posted 05-14-2014 07:34 PM               

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Originally posted by SkyMan1958:
If they put a hold on sales of the engine, it's their own companies and workers that are going to go belly up.

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posted 08-14-2014 02:17 PM               

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Originally posted by dom:
...of the present state of American-Russian space co-operation.

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Rogozin's posturing turned out to be just that: Russia has since stated it has no intention of ceasing engine sales to the U.S., or backing out of the space station or preventing use of the Soyuz. It was all talk by a politician more concerned over the sanctions personally affecting him than any solid threat to either country's space program.

posted 09-03-2014 12:16 AM               

The rising tensions with Russia over its aggression in Ukraine is creating national security concerns inside the Pentagon, where the military’s largest satellite program is reliant on a rocket engine produced by Moscow.

The Air Force said it has begun looking for alternatives to the RD-180 rocket engines for its Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program — the fourth largest line item in the U.S. defense budget — now that Russia has threatened to cut off the technology in its tit-for-tat struggle with the U.S.

Lawmakers and national security analysts said they were aghast that the military allowed itself to become so dependent on Russian military technology during an era of uneasy relations.

“What were we thinking? It’s clear now that relying on Russia for rocket engines was a policy based on hope, not good judgment,” said Michael V. Hayden, a four-star Air Force general who headed the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency before his retirement in 2009.

posted 09-03-2014 12:20 AM               

Last month, for the first time since the Ukraine crisis began, the United Launch Alliance received its first two Russian RD-180 rocket engines from NPO Energomash at its launch facility in Decatur, Alabama.

"We expect another shipment of three engines later this year," ULA spokeswoman Jessica Rye added. The engines, which power ULA's Atlas 5 rocket, are produced by NPO Energomash of Khimki, Russia, and imported by RD-Amross, a joint venture between Energomash and United Technologies Corp.

Mark Peller, ULA's director of the hardware value stream, said earlier in August that those three engines should arrive in October. Between 2015 and 2017, ULA expects Energomash to ship eight RD-180 engines a year, Peller said.

More recently, however, the company has emphasized that RD-180 engine deliveries are continuing unabated despite heightened tensions between Wasington and Moscow.

posted 09-09-2014 08:17 PM               

...the back-to-Crimea idea — announced by Yuri Lonchakov, a former cosmonaut who now heads the training center — is not based on budget considerations (which are still bad). Nor does it reflect any unique advantages of training on the Black Sea: Cosmonauts have also trained near Sochi, within Russia’s boundaries, and Lonchakov did not propose that site.

Here's the kicker: Shifting the survival training to Russian-occupied Crimea will require foreign cosmonauts to accept travel there without Ukrainian visas, an explicit acquiescence to the new diplomatic status of the province. Refusal to attend survival training is equivalent to failing the training, which by existing training regulations is an automatic disqualification for flight certification. No Crimea trip, no space trip.

Cosmonauts train in Crimea, international astronauts continue to use a lake outside Moscow that has been in use for the same training for the past 10 years.

posted 09-09-2014 09:10 PM               

Lonchakov hinted that Crimea might be used for more than sea survival training. "We are also planning, if it works out, to hold sea and mountain survival training," he told the Itar-Tass news agency. He has also said a post-flight rehabilitation center for cosmonauts could be reopened near Yevpatoria, a Crimean coastal resort."

posted 09-09-2014 10:06 PM               

I also think that these types of training events play a major role in the team building that produces a good crew on orbit. If the Russians train in one country and the lone U.S. crewmember trains elsewhere, how will that impact the management of resources should a situation arise that requires its use?

posted 09-09-2014 10:27 PM               

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Originally posted by 328KF:
There is clear calculation on Russia's part to try to put the U.S. in a tough spot...

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