Rogozin suggests Russia will stay on ISS till at least ’24
In remarks this past weekend on Russian television, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said that Russia now plans to continue its international partnership on ISS till at least 2024.
“The ISS will work exactly as long as the Russian side needs to work on it,” Rogozin said. “There are technical problems. The station has been operating beyond its lifespan for a long time. We have a government decision that we are working until 2024.”
…Earlier this year, it was reported by some media outlets that Russia was planning to quit the ISS, blaming Western sanctions, following comments Rogozin made on state television. Rogozin said: “The decision has been taken already, we’re not obliged to talk about it publicly. I can say this only—in accordance with our obligations, we’ll inform our partners about the end of our work on the ISS with a year’s notice.”
The Russian government is presently attempting to develop its own space station for launch before the end of this decade. Since such Russian projects have for decades routinely been delayed, for decades, it is likely that the Putin government has decided that it is better to stay on ISS for the moment then quit and have no space station at all.
Russia has also been negotiating with China to partner with it on China’s space station. While China says it is willing, it also appears entirely uninterested in committing any of its funds to help Russia. It might allow a Russia astronaut to visit its station at some point, but that would likely be the limit of that space station partnership.
All in all, Russia’s space effort faces a dim future. ISS is going to be replaced with several private commercial stations owned by American companies, none of which want to partner with Russia. And Russia doesn’t really have the funds to build its own station. Nor does it have a competitive aerospace industry capable of developing its own stations.
Unless something significant changes soon, Russia’s place in space will shrink considerably in the next ten years.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
In remarks this past weekend on Russian television, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said that Russia now plans to continue its international partnership on ISS till at least 2024.
“The ISS will work exactly as long as the Russian side needs to work on it,” Rogozin said. “There are technical problems. The station has been operating beyond its lifespan for a long time. We have a government decision that we are working until 2024.”
…Earlier this year, it was reported by some media outlets that Russia was planning to quit the ISS, blaming Western sanctions, following comments Rogozin made on state television. Rogozin said: “The decision has been taken already, we’re not obliged to talk about it publicly. I can say this only—in accordance with our obligations, we’ll inform our partners about the end of our work on the ISS with a year’s notice.”
The Russian government is presently attempting to develop its own space station for launch before the end of this decade. Since such Russian projects have for decades routinely been delayed, for decades, it is likely that the Putin government has decided that it is better to stay on ISS for the moment then quit and have no space station at all.
Russia has also been negotiating with China to partner with it on China’s space station. While China says it is willing, it also appears entirely uninterested in committing any of its funds to help Russia. It might allow a Russia astronaut to visit its station at some point, but that would likely be the limit of that space station partnership.
All in all, Russia’s space effort faces a dim future. ISS is going to be replaced with several private commercial stations owned by American companies, none of which want to partner with Russia. And Russia doesn’t really have the funds to build its own station. Nor does it have a competitive aerospace industry capable of developing its own stations.
Unless something significant changes soon, Russia’s place in space will shrink considerably in the next ten years.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Russia is looking for a new “partner” that has lots of money and would like Russia to boss them around about how to spend it. Line forms at the left, no cutting-in!
The whole idea of “partnering” with the Russkies at the conclusion of Cold War I was to keep their rocket engineers employed and to discourage them from working with the Norks or the Mullahs. In retrospect, it doesn’t seem to have worked very well—those bad guys got the technology anyway and now the Russkies are looking for more handouts.
A bit of a rant since I follow both programs.
During the launch coverage of Shenzhou-14, the announcer proudly said that all the parts for the spacecraft and the modules of the Tiangong-3 were built in China. China has bought all technology they could from Russia. I would say that China has emulated Russia’s space program and has exceeded it. Now they want to emulate the West, specifically SpaceX in reusablility.
China wants money and will not pay Russia for their services. Russia is the same. If they do decide to work jointly, I am not sure China would accept the quality control issues like the cracks in the modules, drilled holes in the Soyuz, the problems with the Proton rocket, and the firing of the thrusters from Nauka almost a year ago.
Without ISS, there are no more Soyuz flights. If Russia wants to put up their own station (ROSS), I think all they have left is a backup spare of Zarya, the power platform, a science (forgot the name) module, and some other modules that are used as simulators on the ground. I don’t see them putting up ROSS since they never came through on the Kliper and Orel spacecraft replacement of the Soyuz.
Good luck with that.
Its back to the 1970’s for Russia.
“…all the parts for the spacecraft and the modules of the Tiangong-3 were built in China. ”
Good thing they are developing all that tech themselves, and not stealing it.
3 US companies sanctioned over blueprints sent to China
“The companies — Quicksilver Manufacturing Inc., Rapid Cut LLC, and U.S. Prototype Inc. — provide 3-D printing services to customers that include manufacturers of space and defense technology. The Commerce Department says the customers would send blueprints and drawings to the companies that they wanted printed — and that the companies in turn would send that work to China, presumably as a way to cut costs.”
https://apnews.com/article/technology-china-government-and-politics-business-05e85210c373b184074dd82f0e567361
I also remember the accusations of the Clinton admin allowing the transfer of Nuke and rocket tech to China in the 90s, by granting export licenses that resulted in major Chinese advances.