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Australia Develops Space Program With Russia

Posted by timothy on from the that's-not-a-samovar dept.

Chuq writes: "ABC News has details of a joint space effort between Australia and Russia. Australia will be providing launch locations on the Christmas Islands and Woomera (central Australia) and Russia will be providing.. well, experience! As I'm an Aussie I'm glad to see us finally making our first move into the space arena, no matter how small!" Imagine this happening even, oh, 10 years ago.

1 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. When the US was a world power by sharkticon · · Score: 5

    Ah, those were the days. When we were a nation that actually did something rather than reflect on past glories.

    But well done to Austrailia for moving an important step closer to a true space program, something that any nation that wishes to remain or become an economic player needs. Already the economic impact of space is being felt in the expanding telecommunications industry, and we can only expect this to become more important in the coming decades.

    Which is why I'm wondering how the hell the Russians keep getting in the news for space-related stuff. First Tito, now this? Where the hell was the US? This isn't a criticism of Russia, but considering the funding difficulties they're having at the moment, they're sure as hell going out there and actually doing stuff. We seem to just be sitting on our asses and spending fifty time as much money to do so!

    With the ending of the Cold War it seems that this nation has lost a hell of a lot of gumption and has been content to let things happen without it. The US has gone from being the most respected country in the world to being the whipping boy of third-world nations with poor human rights records, all in the space of a few decades. And what's worse, nobody cares! Read the papers here, and it's all mindless US propaganda aimed at keeping the proletariat happy and patriotic.

    And then there's our illustrious president. I honestly can't decide whether he doesn't care about the rest of the world, or if he's trying to recreate the Cold War, but this time with China. Either way, I feel almost ashamed that there are nations out there moving foward, and that we're not one of them.

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