Posted on 08/15/2008 3:57:34 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
Experts are growing increasingly concerned that the United States will have to rely entirely upon Russia to take astronauts to and from the international space station for at least five years.
NASA's dependency upon the Russian Soyuz space capsules and rockets to carry astronauts to the station is the result of a five-year gap between the scheduled retirement of the shuttle in 2010 and the debut of its replacement in 2015.
The agency had hoped it could narrow this gap by accelerating the initial launch of the craft to 2013 but announced Monday that because of inadequate funding and technical issues, the Constellation space program would not be ready for testing until September 2014.
Although the new date is still within the March 2015 absolute deadline, many experts say NASA's reliance upon Russia to take astronauts into space has placed the agency in an unnecessary position.
"It is a vulnerability," said John Logsdon, director of the space policy institute at George Washington University.
"Any time you are relying on a single system to do a critical task, you are vulnerable if that system has problems.
"It is our fault for not having a replacement for the shuttle much earlier than Orion will be available. It puts Russia in a very powerful position," Logsdon said.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
The replacement for the STS should have been underweigh within a few years of its debut. This is what happens when government beauracracy drags out these things for years.
I don’t want to hear about money being an issue. How many plans and wasted projects have had to be scrapped over the past 10 years?
We have snoozed and let Russia and China overtake us in many areas.
I think now that we realize we aren’t buddies with either, we have given them too much rope.
Most of our products we rely on is partly or mostly made in China. Our satellites and information (and now the new HD program) relies on space travel, which we are dependant on Russia for.
Boy we just set ourselves up good, didn’t we?
NASA is weak with or without Russia. But NASA is primarily a public relations venture, not a part of our armed forces.
It’s Russia’s fault! See, it all fits! It was Russia’s fault that we spent 30 years worth of taxpayer money on the shuttle program! Right.
Isn’t that the most ridiculous thing?
I need to research the budget for NASA. Someone has been flittering away the tax dollars if after all that we have invested, we are now reliant on Russia?
The way things are lookin’ today, the russians may bring our astronauts back, and refuse to take any US replacements back up.
This is a job for ... capitalists. Not for government employees. Paging Mr. Rutan...
Ok, apparently the annual budget for NASA is roughly 17 BILLION dollars.
17 Billion dollars and we have to rely on Russia for FIVE YEARS?
Something is wrong with this picture.
I think we have bigger fish to fry right now!
Ok, now that I have thought about it more, I am just downright mad.
We’re not 100% reliant on them, but more than we should be.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to be this stupid.
...Or Russia’s reliant on us. Or NASA and Russia are reliant on each other. Maybe if Russia does drop out, we’ll cancel a few more pointless NASA programs.
I say get a shuttle up there pronto and get our people back before things down here get any hotter.
I say get a shuttle up there pronto and get our people back before things down here get any hotter.
Easy solution. Shut down the ISS now and devote the money we save to the new shuttle and lunar and Mars missions.
Russia can keep its junk rockets.
Whoa. This is pretty sobering.
What they would understand is that it would be another chance for minority contracting handouts.
For an agency burdened with the incremental search for proof of water on Mars, this is the last straw. Edgar Mitchell blew the whistle on this whole agency scam last month. Fly with the aliens, please.
Time to pull the plug and move on to something of significance, like the search for oil.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2050780/posts
At 17B, we shouldn’t be reliant on anyone.
Yup! Let ‘em survive without our expertise.
I had someone tell me today that we need not worry about nuclear missiles from Russia, it would take far too long for them to get to us.
I asked them if that was the information they had left over from 1984? Because with the space technology the way it is today, what’s to say they couldn’t launch something in the way of star wars that Reagan talked about.
I could be totally wrong, but nothing would surprise me anymore.
If the political leadership that doles out cash deems whatever “17B” does to be not worth fully funding, then maybe 17B should go somewhere else for help. With the record our government has for pruning old, outdated programs and bureaucracies, that’s saying something. Plenty of other agencies should have gone the way of the Bureau of Mines way prior to 1994.
CNN and Pelosi would love for you to believe that.
Our satellites and information (and now the new HD program) relies on space travel, which we are dependant on Russia for.
Bless your heart. There's a difference between launching satellites and manned travel. This article has NOTHING to do with satellite launches, nor your precious, strategic "HD". LOL.
The US has plotted a program to begin the Constellationa and Orion manned programs after the Shuttle is retired.... Otherwise the only reason we have to send men up right now is to man our time$lice of the International Space Station, which is an internationalist toy and of no strategic importance to the USA.
I now return you from reality to your brainwashing sitting in front of your HD screen munching chips! Enjoy!
Why so hateful?
I think we should review all our ties with Russia. Détente is history.
Furthermore, it’s not about my “precious HD” and if you weren’t so angry and bitter about God knows what, you would understand that my “precious HD” is required to receive information and news as of Febuary 2009. Without the converter, you can’t receive information in case of an emergency.
And unless you have a way to get some really super smart robots that can repair satellites in space, you really must have a way to get a human up there, right?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but please, if you do, do so nicely. Thank you.
And I have been checking around because I do not believe I am wrong in the believing that most of our products are at least partially made in China (even if we are talking about the rubber o-rings in working parts of machinery).
Even if it is assembled here, you can bet at one or two of the parts are imported from China.
I remembered reading this story a year or so ago and finally found it.
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2425061320070628?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0
For missions that do not involve bringing significant payloads to earth intact, how is any existing U.S. spacecraft superior to the Russian's Soyuz? It seems to me that mass-producing single-use spacecraft is a lot more economical than overbuilding a spacecraft to survive re-entry in good enough shape to take off again (especially when the spacecraft will need expensive overhauls between missions anyway).
The reliance on the Russians can be traced back directly to VP Al Gore and Dan Goldin, the Democrat Administrator of NASA in the early 1990s. The Clinton Administration was all set to scrap the Space Station because Ronaldus Maximas had launched the program. Goldin pitched the Space Station as an ideal way to entice the Russkies into peaceful cooperation.
I would say the hell with the Soviets and their rockets. Tell NASA to park everything and say the heck with the space station, which is the biggest waste of money since the bridge to no where.
Stop and think, dear. That article has been true about every country throughout time. When Americans invented sneakers, all they had was natural rubber. Which was 100% imported from rubber trees in tropical climes. Did that mean that America was dependent on Belize to win WWII? Of course not.
But Reuters only slants it to be "Americans can't live without China parts." How about those Italians who make $68 sneakers? Do you think they build billions of dollars of CPU chips like Intel does in Santa Clara, California? Do you think they build even just one?
The entire world uses parts from other countries, and America supports your high standard of living by building the most advanced and highest value parts that the market wants. On a typical low-end $500 PC made in China, Intel makes 40% profit margin on their investment paying high-wage engineering, and also high wage semiconductor manufacturing jobs for high-school grads on the west coast. Chinese companies in Xiamen make less than 3% profit margin paying subsistence wages to unskilled workers. But you won't pay $3000 for a low-end PC to support those same jobs in Austin, and frankly, you should not have to because then you can't use that money to pay for the iPOD engineers to pay their mortgage in Cupertino.
You don't want to 'buy Chicom' but you'll gladly chow down on Reuters propaganda.
Run my country down based on anti-American propaganda and you'll get the same attitude I give any other American hater.
First, learn something. There is no switchover from analog TV to "precious HD" so that you can keep your head filled with "information and news" from the hollywierd/new york propaganda outlets.
The FCC has mandated a switch from NTSC to ATSC -terrestrial- broadcasts. ATSC is the digital transport mechanism for ALL video/audio subformats, including digitized NTSC, SD and the various formats of HD so you can see your local accuperfectweatherman in 1080i. LOL.
Terrestrial means EARTH-BASED. It's transmitted to you from towers on earth. Same towers, in fact, that are now beaming analog signals.
The Dish and Direct networks already use digital transmissions, and they use PRIVATE (nothing to do with Russia, China or NASA even) launch facilities, and they DO NOT need to repair those satellites, since they are so simple and reliable it's better to just replace them. They launch new ones and let the other ones decay out of orbit.
And AMERICA provides your satellite TV experience with private capitalist industry, without a bunch of "inactivists" faxing their congressmen to institute some socialist NASA program to 'beat the chinese.'
Scientific-Atlanta/Echostar....these are the US companies with US Engineers (mostly 'sutherners') who design and produce the satellite systems that CNN uses to pollute your mind with anti-American garbage.
And who designs and builds the central semiconductor chipsets that Echostar and SA used? American companies like Silicon Image and Texas Instruments, etc.Building satellite recievers in China (and Turkey and guess what...FLORIDA) is not nearly a threat to our country as what CNN and MSNBC use it for spreading their socialist pap.
I'm sorry if you don't understand my vitriol, but you are (and I do hope you mean well, and are just uninformed) talking down the greatest country on earth, bar none and you don't even understand it. To quote Mr. Haggard, "If you're runnin' down my country,...You're walkin' on the fightin' side of me."
God Bless the America that exists in reality, not in the propaganda virtual HD reality!
Could the Russia-Georgia conflict jeopardize U.S. space plans?
Scientific American | August 15, 2008 | JR Minkel
Posted on 08/16/2008 5:29:17 PM PDT by fightinJAG
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2063096/posts
NASA abandons plan to fly new spaceships by 2013
Reuters on Yahoo | 8/11/08 | Irene Klotz
Posted on 08/11/2008 7:26:12 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2060295/posts
NASA to Realign (slip to 2015) Constellation Program Milestones
NASA Headquarters | Aug. 11, 2008 | Grey Hautaluoma/Stephanie Schierholz
Posted on 08/11/2008 1:22:49 PM PDT by anymouse
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2060110/posts
Air Force prepares launch of X-37B set for December
Valley Press on | Sunday, August 3, 2008. | Allison Gatlin
Posted on 08/03/2008 1:02:29 PM PDT by BenLurkin
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2055852/posts
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