Comments on: A detailed look at Russia’s suffering and shrinking space program

By: Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 04:09:53 +0000

R-7 flew long before microchips were invented. Same with cars. So help me, but libraries and NASA and the military should have chips-but I want most everything else de-computerized.

By: Dick Eagleson

Dick Eagleson — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 02:19:04 +0000

Getting to the Chinese space station from Vostochny could be problematical. Soyuz craft launching from there would have to accomplish almost a 10-degree decrease in orbital inclination to rendezvous with Tiangong which orbits at 42 degrees inclination. That might be possible, but would likely limit Soyuz’s performance to less than is currently possible when going to ISS.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 22:13:38 +0000

I just looked it up and the Russian Vostochny spaceport is still partly under construction. It is above the 51st parallel north in the Russian Far East, and is intended to reduce Russia’s dependency on the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 21:50:30 +0000

Last week Rogozin said that Roscosmos is planning to send their astronauts to the Chinese Space station. He said they hope to launch from the Vostochny Cosmodrome and/or the European launching site in French Guiana. Apparently this isn’t something the Russians can do now. It does look to me that would be an achievable goal for them. But a full fledged program to go to the moon and build a moon base looks way beyond their capabilities. They won’t be able to peddle the BS for long once Starship makes actual progress towards earth orbit, and then progress towards a moon landing.