Russia's Space Program Is In Big Trouble (wired.com) 126
Crippled by war and sanctions, Russia now faces evidence that its already-struggling space program is falling apart. In the past three months alone, Roscosmos has scrambled to resolve two alarming incidents. First, one of its formerly dependable Soyuz spacecraft sprang a coolant leak. Then the same thing happened on one of its Progress cargo ships. The civil space program's Soviet predecessor launched the first person into orbit, but with the International Space Station (ISS) nearing the end of its life, Russia's space agency is staring into the abyss.
"What we're seeing is the continuing demise of the Russian civil space program," says Bruce McClintock, a former defense attache at the US embassy in Moscow and current head of the Space Enterprise Initiative of the Rand Corporation, a nonprofit research organization. Around 10 years ago, Russian leaders chose to prioritize the country's military space program -- which focuses on satellite and anti-satellite technologies -- over its civilian one, McClintock says, and it shows.
Russia's space fleet is largely designed to be expendable. The history of its series of Soyuz rockets and crew capsules (they both have the same name) dates back to the Soviet era, though they've gone through upgrades since. Its Progress cargo vessels also launch atop Soyuz rockets. The cargo ships, crewed ships, and rockets are all single-use spacecraft. Anatoly Zak, creator and publisher of the independent publication RussianSpaceWeb, estimates that Roscosmos launches about two Soyuz vehicles per year, takes about 1.5 to 2 years to build each one, and doesn't keep a substantial standing fleet.
While Roscosmos officials did not respond to interview requests, the agency has been public about its recent technical issues.
Plus this, which failed to make headlines here: "For crewed launches, Russia has long depended on its Baikonur spaceport in neighboring Kazakhstan. But the nation has charged costly annual fees, and in March Kazakhstan seized Russian spaceport assets, reportedly due to Roscosmos' debt."
ooofff (Score:4, Funny)
blyat
Re: (Score:2)
Oh well, there's always ... (Score:1)
If they bail, there's always the Peoples Republic of China to take up the slack.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Well... (Score:5, Interesting)
they could always approach SpaceX and ask for them to send a few extra engines there way, it's not like they laughed in Musk's face when he asked the same of them
Oh, right
Or maybe they could reach out to Ukraine for expertise since they used to house one of the Soviet Union's better space engineering groups
Oh, yeah that's not going to work
Or, maybe they could dig deep and get more rocket scientists entering their educational system, because it's not like people are fleeing russia in fear of becoming canon fodder
Hmmm, that's not gonna work either
I suppose the only chance is for sanity to take over and an entire country stop playing the stupid game that Putin has set them on
LOL, okay too bad, USSR used to have top notch rocket scientists, shame to see it go this way
Re: (Score:3)
> USSR used to have top notch rocket scientists, shame to see it go this way
Re: (Score:2)
LOL, okay too bad, USSR used to have top notch rocket scientists, shame to see it go this way
Putting the LOL's aside for a moment it IS a shame, considering they were the first country in 1961 to send it, when it comes to space exploration.
An entire planet, often forgets that fact.
Re:Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
The planet hasn't forgotten it, but 60-plus years down the line, it is, without continued follow-on, irrelevant.
As the saying goes, "yeah, but what have you done for me lately?"
Re:Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
> "yeah, but what have you done for me lately?"
What have the Romans ever done for us? *
* apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Vital talent of USSR came from outside Russia (Score:3)
The planet hasn't forgotten it, ...
But it has contused, conflated, Russia with the USSR. Russia may have been politically dominant but that is something quite different from being the source of the engineering and scientific talent. One of the reasons Russia is failing is that vital aerospace industry and talent is in Ukraine and former satellite states.
Re: (Score:2)
And America last went to the moon... when??
Re: (Score:2)
Pretty damn obvious to a planet who is leading in space exploration regardless of borders. The name, is SpaceX.
Aren't they basically orbital delivery men at this point? Yeah they can pour a ton of shit into LEO and sometimes go further out but they aren't really exploring anything apart from how to make enough money from their rockets to keep doing it and that's by selling them, or at least a ride on one, to the people who are actually doing the exploring.
Re: (Score:3)
Pretty damn obvious to a planet who is leading in space exploration regardless of borders. The name, is SpaceX.
Aren't they basically orbital delivery men at this point? Yeah they can pour a ton of shit into LEO and sometimes go further out but they aren't really exploring anything apart from how to make enough money from their rockets to keep doing it and that's by selling them, or at least a ride on one, to the people who are actually doing the exploring.
In 2021, Amazon beat their chest when they finally sent up a rocket that provided a "few minutes" of orgasm-grade space experience, which is still the best they can do.
SpaceX responded in kind by sending four humans in orbit for almost three fucking days.
You can stop pretending anyone else, is even close. I can almost hear the ISS laughing at you from here.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
The reason the USSR got the first satellite in orbit before the US was the Eisenhower made a deliberate choice to let them, for political reasons. The US could have beaten them to it, but only using a military rocket, which would have been a political coup for them. Plus, he wanted them to establish that things in orbit over a foreign country didn't violate that country's airspace - so they couldn't complain when our satellites overflew them.
(Sadly, once they did manage an orbital launch using Big Dumb Rock
Re:Well... (Score:4, Insightful)
The technological issues surrounding reusable rockets is a tough problem to reliably solve even now, and if the US was going to keep to Kennedy's commitment to land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade, it was going to be done was with big ass rockets. Say what you will about the Saturn vehicles, they were wonders of technology for the 1960s and did indeed get the job done.
Sometimes perfection is the enemy of the good.
Re: (Score:2)
Say what you will about the Saturn vehicles, they were wonders of technology for the 1960s and did indeed get the job done.
They certainly were. But they weren't as useful as a shuttle would have been on any level other the political grandstanding. (Which we should not ignore the value of, in the late 60s.)
Re: (Score:1)
FYI, the shuttle was supposed to be flying missions weekly to produce equivalent mass to orbit as sticking with SaturnV launchers
Now, 50 years later, we are back to launching big rockets, the news ones are smart enough to land
Nobody is even considering creating anything like the shuttle for moving material to orbit, that certainly does not speak well for the concept
Re: (Score:3)
The shuttle was also originally supposed to have jet engines for powered landings.
The shuttle was the best idea for the technology of the day, within the budget limitations. Now, not so much.
Times change, technology changes, best ideas change.
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps RollsRoyce will complete the Skylon project [wikipedia.org], which would be great for moving people to orbit
Re: (Score:2)
Nobody is even considering creating anything like the shuttle for moving material to orbit, that certainly does not speak well for the concept
Sierra Nevada Corporation is still busily building Dream Chaser. It's intended as a crew transporter and not so much cargo, but it is Shuttle-shaped.
Re: (Score:2)
An entire planet, often forgets that fact.
Oh, I don't know. I think it's more that an entire planet often has better things to think about than that bit of irrelevant trivia.
Who's got the world record for most mushrooms stuffed up their nose? Doesn't matter. What's the name of the person who invented the wheel? Doesn't matter.
Sure, we revere ground-breakers for a while but eventually the who stops mattering. That people who are now dead happened to have lived in the same general geographic region did a thing first is... trivia.
Re: (Score:1)
Yeah and the people most responsible for all that innovation were in what country again?
(USSR is not a country...)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah and the people most responsible for all that innovation were in what country again? (USSR is not a country...)
It was when there was a pioneering space program.
Russia was NOT the first in space, the USSR was (Score:3)
... considering they were the first country in 1961 ...
What country? Not Russia. The USSR was a conglomerate of many countries, many satellite states. Russia may have dominated politically but scientific and engineering talent came from many countries other than Russia. Similar story for that war winning Red Army, troops coming from many countries other than Russia.
Re: (Score:3)
So which country is it that put a man on the moon? The United States is a conglomeration of many states.
The USSR was a country. You're being silly, presumably for some weird political reason known only to yourself.
Re:Russia was NOT the first in space, the USSR was (Score:4, Interesting)
So which country is it that put a man on the moon? The United States is a conglomeration of many states. The USSR was a country. You're being silly, presumably for some weird political reason known only to yourself.
Actually my point is that trying to portray Russia as the first to launch an artificial satellite, the first to put a man into space, is like trying to portray Florida as the first to put a man on the moon.
You do realize that those "other countries" that I am referring to in the USSR context are Ukraine, Georgia, etc. For example lets look at some of the heads of the various design bureaus of the Soviet space program:
Chief Designer of the Soviet space program, Sergei Korolev, Ukranian.
Head of Central Directorate of the Space Forces, Kerim Kerimov, Azerbaijani
Chairman of the Satellite Committee at the Academy of Science, Mstislav Keldysh, Latvian.
Chief Designer of OKB 456 (rocket engines), Valentin Glushko, , Ukranian.
Founder of of OKB-1 (space systems), Mikhail Reshetnev, Ukranian.
Re: (Score:2)
If you go back to an early post in this thread the reference was to USSR as a country
LOL, okay too bad, USSR used to have top notch rocket scientists, shame to see it go this way
Putting the LOL's aside for a moment it IS a shame, considering they were the first country in 1961 to send it, when it comes to space exploration.
An entire planet, often forgets that fact.
I really do not get what you are going on about
If you are quibbling over whether or not the USSR was a country, please refer to Wikipedia:
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics(USSR), was a transcontinental country spanning most of northern Eurasia that existed from 30 December 1922 to 26 December 1991. [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
I really do not get what you are going on about
The erroneous conflation of the soviet space program with the Russian space program. Russia was always nothing more than one contributor to the soviet space program. Similar story with the Red Army, and conflation there too is erroneous.
Re: (Score:2)
Okay, that's reasonable. It sounded like something about the USSR being a "union" so it's not a country.
When the USSR broke up all those countries didn't suddenly slam down iron curtains between themselves. Well, except maybe Latvia... they really hate Russians. Up until 2015 the Ukrainian and Russian space programs worked together fairly closely.
Russia's real problem is that their country fell apart, the bits that were left got sold off to oligarchs, and today they've got the GDP of Spain, the population o
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
they could always approach SpaceX and ask for them to send a few extra engines there way, it's not like they laughed in Musk's face when he asked the same of them
Considering Musk is peddling Russian lies about Ukraine [rollingstone.com], even praising what the Russian state propaganda outlets are saying [businessinsider.com], this may work.
Re: (Score:2)
fwiw, Musk was probably just trying to stay off of Putin's "polonium tea party" list
Re: (Score:2)
USSR was not just Russians ... (Score:4, Insightful)
okay too bad, USSR used to have top notch rocket scientists, shame to see it go this way
The USSR was not just Russians, many of those scientists and engineers were Ukrainian, Georgian, etc. People of satellite states.
Similar story for the Red Army, neither was it just Russians, many soldiers were from satellite states.
Today we are seeing Russia when not propped up by their "neighbors".
Re: (Score:2)
Russia _is_ the last man standing in regards to post Soviet space exploration and the subject of the story we are all responding to
Ukraine has a space program, but has not launched anything for at least 5 years, largely due to Russian aggression
All in all it _is_ a shame to see it go this way
Re: (Score:2)
Russia _is_ the last man standing in regards to post Soviet space exploration ...
Wrong. It was always a multi-state effort, not a purely Russian thing. The only hope Russia had at a space program was to maintain good friendly relations with its neighbors so the old multi-state effort could continue. Obviously it chose otherwise.
Re: (Score:2)
Is English a second language for you? You seem to have a problem with subtlety
Re: (Score:2)
The USSR was not just Russian
Then why does the west attribute all the bad things the USSR did only to Russians. It goes like this usually: when it's about something good then we hear "the USSR was not just Russians", But when it's about something bad then the blame goes only to the Russians.
No we typically hear "Russians" for both good or bad. Its just a bad habit going back to the Czars, where all these countries were part of the Russian Empire. We continue the habit into the Soviet era because the new "czars", the communist leadership, was centered in Russia.
However in some contexts it is important to make the distinction of Soviet vs Russian. For example when referring to the former successes of the Soviet Space Program and the Red Army where both Ukraine and Russia were major contributo
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
No. The west is now puts all the responsibility for Soviet sins on modern Russia.
Goal post move. My point is simply that the Russian space program was a fragment of the old soviet space program and Russia is dependent upon other nations, including Ukraine, and hence is royally screwed.
All the hate for soviet sins goes to Russia and Russians.
Regarding your goal post most, you are quite wrong. Soviets sins are upon supporters for the Soviet Union, in particular those who want its return, a return to soviet empire. Ordinary Russians not desiring such a return deserve no blame.
Also the Soviet space program is one of the few things the west res
Re: (Score:2)
My point is simply that the Russian space program was a fragment of the old soviet space program and Russia is dependent upon other nations, including Ukraine, and hence is royally screwed.
You made this conclusion only from the fact that the USSR was bigger than Russia. But that's not enough. You don't know the details. You don't know where and what parts of the soviet space program were located. The soviet space program was mostly located in Russia. There was (and is) a space launch pad in Kazakhstan. Some not very significant parts of the soviet space industry were located in Ukraine. And that's about it.The Ukrainian space and aviation industry quickly degraded almost to nothing after the
Re: (Score:2)
My point is simply that the Russian space program was a fragment of the old soviet space program and Russia is dependent upon other nations, including Ukraine, and hence is royally screwed.
You made this conclusion only from the fact that the USSR was bigger than Russia.
Wrong, I made that conclusion from the fact that much of the Soviet Space program was not Russian even in Soviet days. For example lets look at some of the heads of the various design bureaus of the Soviet space program:
Chief Designer of the Soviet space program, Sergei Korolev, Ukranian.
Head of Central Directorate of the Space Forces, Kerim Kerimov, Azerbaijani.
Chairman of the Satellite Committee at the Academy of Science, Mstislav Keldysh, Latvian.
Chief Designer of OKB 456 (rocket engines), Valentin G
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Whether Korolev or Reshetnev were Ukrainian is debatable. We don't know how they identified themselves ...
Yes, we do. They identified as Soviet.
As for dependence of the Russians on the Ukrainian aerospace: the Ukrainian aerospace industry depended on the Russians more than the Russians on the Ukrainians.
Maybe, either way the point is the USSR was a system of mutual dependencies. One nation, even the political master of Russia, does not get to claim more than a share of the USSR's successes in space. Conflating Russia with USSR with respect to space is erroneous.
And that the current problems of the Russian aerospace result from the lack or spare parts manufactured by the Ukrainians is a pure speculation on your part. You don't know that.
Other than prior to the war that is where various parts came from? Other than during the war they tried to secure these facilities?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And not only that Reshetnev, Korolev and Glushko worked in Russia, they also studied in Russia (in Moscow and in St. Petersburg). (Considering by Russia the modern day Russia's territory and not the Tsarist Russia where they were born which included the Ukraine).
In other words these Russian institutions found these Ukrainians, etc to be superior candidates for school and work. That indicates the importance of those outside Russia itself.
China? (Score:2)
What about China? They wanting to be friends to each other now.
Re: (Score:3)
A space program is a want, not a need.
Tell that to the multiple mult-billion dollar a year industries that rely on it, like the entire telecommunications industry, and the entire television industry.
In all honestly, every dollar sent launching astronauts into space is a dollar wasted. It could be better spent arming and feeding your populace.
There are many people who feel money would be better spent on robotic missions, it is true. Interestingly, not all of the people who have actually worked on purely robotic missions agree.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Hint: it doesn't. GPS (et all) is the only thing on mobile phones that is related to satellites...
By and large correct, but not completely.
...and satellite phones have been around for a while -
Apple's latest iPhones have emergency satellite radios -
https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobi... [cnet.com]
https://www.iridium.com/produc... [iridium.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
At the consumer level, GPS is largely it. But the backbone it connects to has depended on communications satellites [wikipedia.org] for 60 years. Telstar launched in 1962, and the idea behind it goes back to Arthur C. Clarke in 1945.
Without the space program - all 65+ years of it - nothing like our modern cell phones, or the internet, could exist.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'll try to use small words this time, so pay attention:
The consumer doesn't interact directly with the satellite networks. But phone companies, and internet backbone companies do. Phones have use geosynchronous satellites for 60 years, and television networks have broadcast to affiliates via satellite for nearly as long. It's an inherent part of their backbone, whether you know it or not. And the internet was built, originally, on the physical backbone of the telecommunications industry.
That you don't unde
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's not the length of the words you use, but the combination that doesn't make sense.
Then have a grown up explain it to you.
Geosynchronous sats are useless for communication due to the latency, about 0.4 seconds up and down.
And yet, they've been in use for 60+ years.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Well... (Score:5, Interesting)
If Russia basically cedes its space program to competing nations, I think it's likely it will never really reinstated under Russia's own auspices. Whatever the end result of the war in Ukraine, Russia's economy is going to be in shambles, and the flight of human capital is going to leave key industries crippled for years. What we are seeing in Russia isn't the new dawn of the Bear, we're seeing the death throes of an empire whose capacity for force projection has diminished so much in the last 40 years that it can't even successfully invade a country a fraction of its size and population that sits on its own border. If anything, the war is accelerating the decline. This more resembles the Russian Empire in the last few decades of its existence; overextended with perpetual economic and political woes, and then a crazed and delusional ruler decided to jump into an alliance that pulled a broken country into a war of attrition that saw an entire generation wiped out, while the engine of state ground itself to death.
In 1917 at least a coherent political entity existed that could seize power and eventually impose order. But Putin has been much more successful than the Romanovs at eliminating potential competitors, so the irony is that there is no government-to-be in exile that can swoop in when the Russian people finally rise up. Russia has become a trap for its people, and now Putin will mortgage the country to Beijing just to create the illusion that Russia is still in the game. If Russians think they're in trouble now, just wait until they wake up and realize China owns them.
Russia never had a "complete" space program ... (Score:3)
If Russia basically cedes its space program to competing nations ...
Russia's space program is not "organic", neither "complete". It inherited a fraction of the former USSR's space program, which was a multi-state effort, not a purely Russian effort. Georgia, Ukraine, etc all contributed vital scientific, engineering and manufacturing talent. The only hope Russia had at a space program was to maintain good friendly relations with its neighbors so the old multi-state effort could continue. Obviously it chose otherwise.
Re: (Score:2)
It may be a modern Potemkin village, but Russia is putting all of their space eggs in the Vostochny Cosmodrome [wikipedia.org] basket
I think Russia's biggest problem are the cleptocrats that rob the country blind while pretending to put together armies and space programs
Re: (Score:2)
It may be a modern Potemkin village, but Russia is putting all of their space eggs in the Vostochny Cosmodrome basket. I think Russia's biggest problem are the cleptocrats that rob the country blind while pretending to put together armies and space programs
While kleptocracy is certainly a major problem, there is also the serious problem that Russia was not self sufficient and required some aerospace resources that were in Ukraine. Putin obviously thought Ukraine would quickly submit and necessary resources could be secured as in Georgia and Belarus.
Re: (Score:3)
Except Putin doesn't care about the populace. If he did, he wouldn't be engaged in a proxy war with the West via Ukraine.
Thus spending vanity money on space would fit in with wasting money at the expense of its citizens. However, the problem is, space isn't sexy anymore
Rocket Rummage Sale (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
or sells nuke technology to anyone willing to buy?
I hear those are pretty high price tag items and don't really see Russia caring about world opinion or signed treaties.
They could always actually use that knowledge to help the world energy crisis and get rich with their nuclear reactor technology. Drive jet engine development forward, nuclear reactor designs- they have tons of experience with nuclear reactors on ships, subs, etc- world is moving towards a smaller modular design preference. No doubt a lot
I'll survive (Score:4, Interesting)
If Russia loses everything it built because it dedicates itself to invading free nations... good.
Space was the one great thing the USSR ever did. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
And even that they stole from the Germans.
Then again, the US just stole the Germans...
Re:Space was the one great thing the USSR ever did (Score:4, Insightful)
Oof. But not totally fair. The Soviets stole Germans; we bribed Germans.
Re: (Score:2)
It's easy to bribe when the alternative is to either live in a totally destroyed and bankrupt country or being snatched up by Archipel Gulag.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Whenever you have a coolant leak... (Score:3)
Always eject the warp core.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That's going on my "All I need to know about life I learned from Star Trek" poster....
Let’s see:
Become a swashbuckling captain, speak in a..unique..cadence, and you get all the hot women around? Always take a few people in red shirts with you whenever you go someplace new?
Yea, all you need to know is in ST:TOS
Re: (Score:2)
Probably a clickbait article (Score:3, Informative)
I say probably, because I can't actually review the article, because once again, Slashdot editors have linked to a fucking paywall article .
It's PROBABLY clickbait, because despite the alarming-sounding title, other stories have noted that Russia has been slowing moving their space operations to their East (their new Vostochny Cosmodrome [wikipedia.org]) for some time now, building new launch infrastructure to replace Baikonur, which they knew they'd have to eventually abandon for the sheer fact that it's in Kazakhstan. The Russians have been operating from Vostochny since 2016. Other articles have also noted that Kazakhstan chose to move on the facilities now in an attempt to wring more money out of the Russians. The Russians knew this was eventually coming. Thus, the new eastern launch facilities. It certainly goes beyond "minor inconvenience", but "big trouble"? "Falling apart"? No.
Re: (Score:3)
I say probably, because I can't actually review the article, because once again, Slashdot editors have linked to a fucking paywall article
https://gitlab.com/magnolia123... [gitlab.com]
Once again, don't elect dictators (Score:3, Interesting)
The US is flirting with dictatorship. We've got several candidates for president who are making it clear they're not going to leave office unless they're forced to, and one of them has enough military background that, were he to be elected, he will likely have the army on his side.
Remember all this when it's time to vote in a few years. I know, I know, short memories, but this is worth putting on your calendar.
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
It's a strange fictional world you live in, friend, between those two ears.
Re: (Score:1)
Where is he wrong? Oh right, he isn't. That's why you provided zero reasons behind your claims.
Interesting thing about Kazakhstan (Score:2)
Kazakhstan was actually the last country to leave the USSR. Russia left *before* they did. That means that for a very brief period, Kazakhstan was actually the entire USSR and could have conceivably decided to remain as such, although it was obviously a tainted brand. It was one of those odd administrative curiosities. In a similar vein though of far less consequence, Washington was once a city within the District of Columbia along with Georgetown and a few other places. Even in a city full of excess g
Re: (Score:3)
Well... no. The Soviet Union was the name of a country. If a part decides to separate from that country, the rest of the country still remains what it was.
If Kazakhstan had been smarter, they could now hold a permanent UN seat and Russia could try to apply for membership.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
NASA never had nor has issues (Score:1, Interesting)
Oh... wait!, that was in the U.S.A. (Challenger)
Never mind... those stupid Russians...
Re: (Score:1)
Yeah... those stupid Russians! Ha! They even blew up a school teacher! can you imagine that? Oh... wait!, that was in the U.S.A. (Challenger) Never mind... those stupid Russians...
Russians are far superior.
They blow up actual schools.
And this is different than the US, how? (Score:1, Troll)
This is little different than the status of the US space efforts. We've eclipsed "civilian" spending for military (and it's been a lot longer than 10 years).
I also take issue with the article's tone... Russia is hardly "crippled by war and sanctions" right now. Nobody can objectively look at the status of things in Russia and say they're all that much worse than they were in, say, 2019.
https://fortune.com/2023/03/13/russia-economy-held-up-tightening-oil-sanctions-more-problems-putin/
Self decimation, another "stable genius" (Score:1)
They've blown their wad on the stupid invasion, not much left for non-critical programs. That nation is quite vulnerable right now because they spent much their stockpile such that they couldn't defend a lasting attack from a medium-sized country. However, I imagine they'd use the Red Button if that happened, as they'd arguably be justified.
Who cares (Score:4, Insightful)
Russia seems to be becoming China's colony... (Score:1)
After the press releases from the Putin and Xi summit, it seems like Russia is becoming a colony of China, where all their trade goes through Belt and Road, and winding up a super-sized version of North Korea with its head up its derriere, other than saber rattling just to keep the West annoyed.
Long term, it won't be great for Russia. I would expect a lot of unmarked "camps" to be set up, where they have an odd ash odor, similar to certain other areas where China is. Putin's legacy will be having Russia e
A really unbiased source... (Score:2)
'"What we're seeing is the continuing demise of the Russian civil space program," says Bruce McClintock, a former defense attache at the US embassy in Moscow and current head of the Space Enterprise Initiative of the Rand Corporation...'
Alternate plan for Russian spaceflight (Score:2)
Maybe they can just build a giant trampoline...
The fall of the Soviet Union. (Score:2)
After all these decades, I'm amused we're still seeing the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union, when Kazakstan was just another state in the USSR, and not a separate nation-state.
Of course not all of it is fun and games; Kaliningrad (technically part of Russia but geographically separated from Russia) contains one of Russia's most important naval bases--and yet is separated from Russia by Poland and Lithuania via the Suwalki pass. [time.com] And if Ukraine all goes pear-shaped for Russia, this may be one of a c
Re: (Score:2)
What? We're still seeing the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. Putin is the latest czar.
And dreams of "ROSS" begin to die (Score:2)
Russia's previously announced plans [slashdot.org] to build their own orbiting platform went so far as to grant it a name: "ROSS". It is looking more and more like ROSS will never see the light of day, let alone a launchpad.
Color me not shocked [slashdot.org].
Re: (Score:2)
They're worthless. Ask Lugash [youtube.com].