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Russia Doubles Price For Launching US Astronauts

Third Position writes "NASA on Tuesday signed a contract to pay $55.8 million per astronaut for six Americans to fly into space on Russian Soyuz capsules in 2013 and 2014. NASA needs to get rides on Russian rockets to the International Space Station because it plans to retire the space shuttle fleet later this year. NASA now pays half as much, about $26.3 million per astronaut, when it uses Russian ships."

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  1. Re:Capitalism by Teancum · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I actually agree with the AC reply to this saying you are a freaking idiot. I promise you than once the American Republic is no more, your life and the lives of your children, grandchildren, and anybody you may know personally or will ever know will be far worse than it is right now.

    I seriously don't understand why some people want to seek the downfall of America. Sure, we have had some idiots running the show at the top, such as the current (and some would say the previous two as well) occupants of the White House, but the American people are trying hard to fix that problem too. No, I'm not happy with American becoming a banana republic, and I am trying to do something about that too.

    As for what Russia is doing here.... more power to them! They currently have a monopoly on sending people into space, and they are taking advantage of that monopoly. Being the capitalists that Russia has become, it is awesome that they are raising the price of going up in a spaceship.... which can only encourage companies like SpaceX, Boeing, and Orbital Science to accelerate their spacecraft development to cash in on the gold rush. All three of these companies BTW have vehicles under development which will put people into orbit that is in direct competition to the Soyuz spacecraft, and there are other groups like ARCA and a couple of Canadian companies that might get into the game too.

    As for China and Taiwan deciding to increase manufacturing prices, I say BRING IT ON! That would only encourage some investment in domestic manufacturing production and help America get out of its recession. It would also be China shooting itself in the foot if they did that.

    As for causing the internal collapse of America, that is being done well enough by those in control of the government within America. No additional help is needed as they are doing seemingly everything possible to cause the economy to collapse as it is and doing precisely the worst possible actions to encourage a recovery. Just wait until the U.S. economy has triple digit inflation, then you will see how bad it really can get.