May 14 2014
Russia Highjacks America’s Space Station
This is as dumb a move as I have ever seen. If this escalates Russia will maroon our people in space. Or it can just bring everyone back and leave our investment orbiting above our heads out of reach. Stopping emails from Russia to NASA counterparts? Really – that’s their plan?
There are times I hate being right – and this is one of those times:
Russia is to deny the US future use of the International Space Station beyond 2020 and will also bar its rocket engines from launching US military satellites as it hits back at American sanctions imposed over Ukraine crisis.
Russia’s deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin announced a series of punitive measures on Tuesday against the US in response to sanctions imposed after Russia annexed Crimea.
The two countries have long cooperated closely on space exploration despite their clashes in foreign policy.
The Space Station is manned by both American and Russian crew, but the only way to reach it is by using Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft.
After 3 decades of flights, everyone knew a next generation of manned space vehicles were needed to continue the 50 year dream initiated by President Kennedy. And so, under President Bush, the Constellation Program was initiated and it returned to our Apollo roots for it’s inspiration.
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And now, for the first time since 1961, we do not have any vehicles to shuttle our astronauts into space. We cannot fly our own people to the International Space Station, the 2nd great endeavor we embarked upon in the 1970?s and 1980?s. We spent billions developing and building the Space Station and we just recently marked 10 years continuous operations there – yet we now need to pay Russia to get us to and from it. We can’t do it on our own anymore. (Technically this is a violation of law, which mandates we must be able to perform all our space missions with our own assets so no nation can hold us hostage – a minor detail this administration has clearly ignored).
Want to know how bad Obama has let this country slide into irrelevancy? Look up at the Space Station at night and realize on the hard work and tax payer money we spent putting it into orbit was squandered by someone who could blow billions on poor healthcare schemes, but could not find the money needed to RETAIN our access to space.
I have missed your postings.
saw the update, although I disagree with the title. It should have been labeled:
“America still foolishly and childishly pretends it has a space station”.
btw, I have a few acres of land in Antarctica I’m willing to sell. You won’t ever be able to visit them, but because of that I’ll sell them to you pretty cheap.
Obama suffers from a complete inability to extrapolate the consequences of his actions. I will agree he tries to be the smartest man in the room. Too bad the way he does that is by hiring people even more incompetent than he is.
And there is no outrage about this in the mainstream press, is there?
*Not* *One* *Word*
(Almost as frustrating and rage-inducing as Benghazi: not a word from the MSM asking why there was no rescue attempt, even though people in the State Department admitted they were watching via drone in real time. “Oh, we didn’t have time to get there” is the excuse. Whaaaat? Going in to a firefight, you DON’T KNOW if it’s going to last 17 minutes or 17 hours. You see Americans in trouble, you hustle to rescue them, period. Except this band of crap-weasels couldn’t be bothered. And our 4th estate is covering for them. Unconscionable.)
This country is no MORE corrupt and MORE dysfunctional than the old Soviet Union was under Brezhnev. The tactics that the so-called “journalists” use would put the old Pravda writers to shame.
Not only will this country fall, it deserves to. We have disgraced and degraded everything our forefathers built, and have proven that our generation is no longer worthy of the magnificent creation they bequeathed us.
And for that reason we will lose it.