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NASA Halts Non-ISS Work With Russia Over Ukraine Crisis
An anonymous reader writes "The Verge reports on an internal memo from NASA indicating that they've suspended all contracts and activities with Russia that aren't involved with operating the International Space Station. Quoting: 'Given Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, until further notice, the U.S. Government has determined that all NASA contacts with Russian Government representatives are suspended, unless the activity has been specifically excepted. This suspension includes NASA travel to Russia and visits by Russian Government representatives to NASA facilities, bilateral meetings, email, and teleconferences or videoconferences. At the present time, only operational International Space Station activities have been excepted.' NASA Administrator Charles Bolden argued recently that our dependence on Russia for putting astronauts into space needs to end."
It's really too bad these have to get in the way.
Isn't this the sort of thing that the ISS collaboration was supposed to prevent?
Gas, grass, or ass--no one rides Soyuz for free!
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Would have the Russians suspend all ISS related contracts.
Good for the goose and all.
As a Dane im proud that the Secretary General of NATO and the Danish foreign minister is in front with sanctions against Russia. Putin is effectively destroying what has created lasting peace in Europe from the last 69 years. Putin will keep pushing, until we stand firm. Then he will pick as with someone else...even the gay community, anything that will take eyes of the fact that he rules the country like a dictator. But, the US Russian space cooperation was first initiated as a sign of good will. It will always stand as one of the greatest examples of respect, despite differences. I want to keep the space cooperation out of any foreign relations.
The rhetoric coming out of Washington these days is about as lost as it's foreign policy.
Space-X has done a bunch of docking with the international space station already, if they have a rocket capable of transporting people to the space station, this will be huge for them.
You heard it first here folks (well, maybe not): This is a bad omen.
Space has, for a long time, been one bright spot of US/Russian relations. For the US to make a move like this is basically a way of saying that we're not going to be friends any longer, and as soon as the ISS becomes obsolete, our governments will work separately in projects which serve to benefit all of humanity.
Now we shall once again enter a period of cold war style relations between these countries. Don't get me wrong, Putin has been blood-hungry for quite a while, and only through a fortunate (by unintentionally spoken) hypothetical by the US secretary of state were we able to temporarily diffuse the recent Syrian chemical weapons incident. Russia/US relations are coming to a head...start the popcorn.
SpaceX is not too far from manned launches. Of course, if NASA had gone ahead with Orion and Jupiter-Direct, the US would have manned space flight capabilities by now.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
.."if Russia stops American astronaut rides to the International Space Station any time soon and before U.S. companies are ready to do the job."
Asshole. How does this even make sense?
'The space station would probably have to be shut down without Russian transport, and in that case, "I would go to the president and recommend we terminate SLS and Orion."'
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2014/03/nasa_administrator_says_cancel.html
It inspired a race between two great nations to reach further than each other towards the stars.
The bad thing is that this doesn't seem likely again as we move out of the basic science business. I would love to proven wrong on this, but it seems that the US public looks upon basic research funded by the fed as some kind of socialist program. George W was instrumental in sabotaging basic science programs, especially those that study climate and geology, because there research objectives and discoveries didn't fit his agenda.
That's unfortunate that we loose scientific abilities because of political reasons. Science in this country already suffers from enough political religious groups and budget cuts. Hopefully SpaceX or the airforce will be able to fill the gap until it stabilizes.
Except Bolden has said he would recommend killing SLS and Orion if Russia stops flying our astronauts to the ISS.
'Bolden said the space station would probably have to be shut down without Russian transport, and in that case, "I would go to the president and recommend we terminate SLS and Orion."'
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2014/03/nasa_administrator_says_cancel.html
Care to rethink what the agenda is?
uh, no.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Space program is one of the few unique things Russia can be proud of on the world stage. If it's prestige is endangered, Putin is apt to take notice. Unlike oil, space is above every country in the world and there is no inherent reason Kazakhstan has to keep its dominance for launches.
SpaceX is not too far from manned launches.
I believe the most optimistic schedule has a manned launch sometime mid-2015. I'd guess early 2016 as the soonest we'll see a manned SpaceX launch.
Of course, if NASA had gone ahead with Orion and Jupiter-Direct, the US would have manned space flight capabilities by now.
It would be great to have an Orion capsule ready to launch on a SpaceX Falcon9 rocket. Unfortunately the rest of the Constellation program was so horribly over budget and behind schedule that it needed to be shut down.
It was the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind, ten years after the second Iraq War. The ISS Project was a dream given form. Its goal: to prevent another war by creating a place where Americans and Russians could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call - home away from home for astronauts, cosmonauts, scientists, and tourists. Russians and Americans wrapped in 450,000 kilograms of spinning metal, all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for peace. This is the story of the last of the IIS stations. The year is 2014. The name of the place is the IIS.
WOW. SO FUTAR. Just like when they quarantined Clavius base.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Well, I guess it turns out that shutting down our only manned space vehicle and going with another country was a bad move on our part. I can't believe this political powers were so short minded to force us to rely on another country in which we have had such a rocky history.
The MIC just had a cold-war-gasm
Table-ized A.I.
Oh come on, you're being unrealistically tough on a fledgling company. Can't they first shoot for the Shuttle's safety record?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I think that killing the SLS makes the most sense. Spending 3B/year for another 10 years just to get a system taht will costs us 1-3B PER LAUNCH for 70 tonnes is nothing less than insane.
Care to rethink your logic?
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Care to cite any sources to backup those claims?
SpaceX is not too far from manned launches.
The word I've heard is that they simply don't have enough free time (their satellite launch business is doing very well) to do it in 2014, so it's pretty likely to be next year.
if NASA had gone ahead with Orion
...they wouldn't have had any budget left to actually go anywhere. Or at least not anywhere Congress could agree to let them.
Seriously, go read this guy's stuff, he explains a lot about NASA's budget troubles: http://spaceksc.blogspot.com/
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
They should have shitcanned Ares-1 from the start, and gone with Ares-V.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
it was in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
OP is so gay he cain't even get his facts straight. US invaded Afghanistan, look it up.
Just in case you're not trolling, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, and stayed for a decade before abandoning it. Look it up yourself:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_war_in_Afghanistan
I understand that the Russians are the only ones that can put people in the space station, and that the US serves as the ground control. If Russia refuses to let Americans on to the space station, what are the chances that the US would not coordinate ground control for an exclusively Russian or non-American crew? I've read from a number of sources speculating on this probability. What kind of ground support and communications structure are needed to keep the station operational? With the addition of the alpha magnetic spectrometer, the ISS has become a lot more interesting. : http://ams.nasa.gov/
Perhaps this is one thing that both countries really care about, it's one thing that could serve as leverage between then; a negotiation point.
It's a shame that the cooperation deminishing. The Russians are doing some really fantastic work. They've put a radio telescope in orbit: They launched a radio telescope (Spektr-R) into space. By synchronizing this telescope with earth based telescopes, it can resolve features that are 1250x times smaller than what Hubble can see (40u-arc-seconds vs 0.05 arc-seconds).. Did you know that by pointing all of the radio dishes on one side of the earth, and that knowing the exact time radio waves hit each receiver with atomic clocks, you can out resolve any optical telescope on earth? We can literally see finer details with a radio telescope than we can with our best optical ones (using "VLBI " interferometry). The more separation between radio dishes, the better the angular resolution; and now we have one in orbit that will give us much much better resolving power. We may be able to "see" planets with radio waves. (I'd love to hear from radio astronomers about the practical limitations of this -- real world vs back-of-the envelope)
They only started recently announcing their achievements on their website. Several of my friends joked that the reason we heard nothing for so long was that it was an expensive and embarrassing dud. It works, but they don't market or advertise themselves well. http://www.asc.rssi.ru/radioas...
You prefer to leave space flight to the whims of a billionaire instead of dictator?
I hope private companies are successful in achieving reliable manned flight, but I don't believe the US should be putting all its eggs in one basket. Until there are viable alternatives, the US would be wise to pursue as many avenues to space as possible.
Order your manned flight to the ISS here. Space-X is doing various "abort tests" NASA insists on, and the first manned launch for NASA isn't supposed to happen until 2017. But Space-X may send their own private astronauts into orbit next year.
Space-X has been sending Dragon spacecraft to the ISS for some time now. The fourth one was supposed to launch this week, but the USAF had a fire at one of their tracking stations and all Cape Canaveral launches are on hold.
NASA apparently is trying to erect sanctions against NASA. Most of the US space and military heavy hauling was done by Volga-Dnepr An-124. It used to make its final approach to Moffett field right over my head. I guess we'll no longer see it. I wonder what NASA is going to do to replace it. Slice the cargo into smaller chunks and make more trips?
Actually, if house republicans will quit gutting private space funding, and even increase it a bit, SpaceX can be ready to launch before the end of this year. And with just 1-2 months worth of work, they can be used as a return vehicle.
Of course, it all depends on funding.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
No, I prefer to have a large number of launch vehicles available, then to leave it to the whims of a bunch of DOD companies that are rapping and pillaging.
Look, back in the 60's, we had a large number of companies that competed. Now, they find it far more profitable to work together and keep the price up high.
And no, the SLS is NOT an option. We really already have muttiple options. We have Falcon 9, shortly to have Falcon Heavy. We have Atlas V, though that is about to stop. We have Delta IV. We have OSC with multiple rockets. And if we kill the SLS now, we can have a new COTS for say 2 SHLVs (realy SHs at say 150 tonnes, not this 70 tonne joke).
In addition, both Europe and Japan have launch systems. So, building the SLS does not buy us a thing. In fact, it simply is a waste of money.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
No, Ares I was SCHEDULED by 2014, but it was already exteneded out to 2017.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
WTF are you talking about? You can transfer money for free from Paypal to a US bank account in 3-4 days via ACH transfer. You can also get a Paypal debit card for free, and spend the money from your Paypal account at any place that takes debit card or Mastercard (Paypal even gives you 1% cash back for doing this). You can also just request a paper check.
deGrasse Tyson came up with "Cosmic thinking" that basically says we are all together on this little planet and we need to work together - for ALL of our benefit.
It' a great idea. But in reality, petty bickering inevitably breaks out even in small groups of people. Without good leaders, people just won't act in concert very well, even when it's clearly in their best interests.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
I mean, Fox-News-claiming-Bush-kept-us-safe-from-terrorist-attacks breathtaking. As in you cannot believe that someone just said something that brazen with a straight face.
Nah, they just forced Iraq to privatize it's oil industry and sell it off to for-profit foreign interests. Because America's record post WWII has been that of a rampaging imperialistic shitbag that has all the power of a British Empire without any of the responsibilities. Rather than setting up a colonial government, which might actually do shit like build roads and schools, you just overthrow dozens of governments, including democratically elected ones, to get those sufficiently subservient to your "national interests".
No shit. America got a million people killed in Iraq, created millions more refugees, and bombed the country into the stone age. Call us when Putin does the same or starts having 16 year old kids murdered on the other side of the planet from Moscow.
The hell they did. Any reason in particular you're ignoring the illegal, western-backed coup of Ukraine's democratically elected president less than 6 months before the next elections? Aside from all that, if Russia "invaded" Crimea by moving troops to a navel base covered under an existing treaty with Ukraine, than the United States has been busy invading western europe and Japan for over 60 years.
It takes some serious neocon balls (with a hefty dose of willful dumfuckery) to treat the self-appointed junta in Ukraine as a legitimate organization, while flatly ignoring the fact that the people of Crimea just overwhelmingly voted to join Russia. This is invariably countered with some BS about how this vote was done "at the end of a gun barrel", ignoring the fact that the the first things the junta did after sizing power was to strip Crimea of it's autonomy and start oppressing minorities. And ignoring the fact that the United States has 900 military bases throughout the world and special forces operating in more than half the world's countries.
You mean after the Wikileaks cables showed Bush giving free reign to death squads, after the U.S. built military bases and a fortress of an embassy, and made it clear that it would re-invade on a moments notice from military bases in surrounding countries in the event of 'instability'?
FTFY. Compare how many governments Russia has overthrown since the fall of the Soviet Union, and get back to us. How many countries has Russia bombed or invaded. How many people Putin is keeping in gulags, and force feeding them (which is torture), after they've been cleared for release since 2007? Is Russia violating the sovereignty of nations thousands of miles away from it by bombing innocent people inside them with impunity?
The United States lecturing modern Russia about imperialism is like Jack the Ripper lecturing Alec Baldwin on how to treat women.
The response
Our dependence on Russia for putting astronauts into space NEVER SHOULD HAVE FUCKING HAPPENED!
But, can we vote into office a group of dumbasses who'll shit all over America's mission into space?
YES! WE CAN!
Can we just take all that money and shovel it into Russian coffers and pork projects?
YES! WE CAN!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
All it takes is one congressman inserting language in an appropriations bill about what countries NASA isn't allowed to work with.
But they'd never do something like that, right?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
It was so bad, we had to get a legal opinion on if I was allowed to respond to a question e-mailed to the support address for one of the projects I work on. (they said yes, because the project was international in scope, and not just between us and China).
I also had a to pass up an invitation from the US Academy of Science, as it was for a meeting that was being held in China. (later, I was informed that it was Taiwan, which didn't count as China, but it was too late at that point).
ps. if it's not obvious, I work at a NASA center.
pps. and then let's not forget about earmarks and the like. Or how the shuttle was built all over the US and then brought together, to make congress happy that it was being built in their district.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
I blew that by getting the wrong energy content of a cubic meter of natural gas. It's more like 16-17 billion cubic meters of natural gas. That's 150,000 trips of such LNG carriers which sounds a lot more reasonable. Let's say that one ship could do a round trip from North America to Europe and back in two weeks or 25 trips a year. Then that's a need for about 6,000 ships. Wikipedia notes that new ship construction is up to 260,000 cubic meters, which would drop the ship count to under 3,000.
There are currently 357 LNG carriers of any sort (according the Wikipedia link in the previous page) in the general category worldwide. There are currently 4,000 oil supertankers worldwide. So this would be a substantial increase in large ship traffic particularly since it would just be servicing a particular region.
orion/sls is not a viable alternative.
It's a money-suck designed to perpetuate profits for contractors in utah. (particularly, ATK).
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Our dependence on lousy governments for space transport needs to end. Go SpaceX!
Oligarchs, Fascists and the People's Protest in Ukraine
Derek Monroe says the Ukrainian far-right, with the backing of local oligarchs, the US and the EU, hijacked popular protests against corruption
"Western press reports are saying Russian troops are amassing on the Ukraine border. Russia says these are normal troop movements. There's a war of words between Congress and the Kremlin. But it seems fairly clear now, as the dust more or less settles, the Russian annexation of Crimea will have to be de facto recognized by Ukraine and the West. And the strategy now of President Obama and Europe is to quickly try to integrate Ukraine into the E.U. orbit and the American orbit--$18 billion IMF loan is being promised to the Ukraine and more."
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11661/
Actually, not just ATK, but all of the companies connected to those republicans that I listed earlier. All of them are on the take for the SLS. Of course, the dems helped push the SLS through as well, but it is house neo-cons/tea* (not the real republicans) that are trying to gut private space.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Though it could be more accurate to say that the Soviets sent support to the government of Afghanistan, in the same way the USA sent support to the government of South Vietnam.
This space intentionally left blank
Precisely!!! A Few Questions Now That We’re Scorched Earth w/ Russia: Like How do We Get to/from Space?
Idiot. Musk has had nothing to do with Paypal for over a decade.
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
Look no further than the fact that the Germans were trying to hold out in the end long enough to get their troops and people into Allied hands rather than Russian hands.
The Eastern front was two monsters fighting each other.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
that George Bush proposed, Project Constellation
Proposing something and actually FUNDING it are very different things. GW's space efforts were just for show, as has been the case with every President since Nixon. They all get up and give their "WE'RE GOING TO MARS, BOYS!!" rah-rah speech. But at the end of the day, the NASA funding that was cut after Apollo remains at pretty much the same anemic levels. So NASA floats along, jerking around with LEO space bullshit, pretending they're actually going to do more *someday*. But it's all a dog-and-pony show for dumb shits like you. And that is truly non-partisan, with both parties being equally full of shit about being serious about space.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
In other news, Russian defense and space minister Dmitry Rogozin said Russia has no space interests with NASA outside of the International Space Station.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden was subsequently reported to have said, "THAT'S THE JOKE."
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
... that the US has a functioning rocket program and doesn't depend on Russia for launches.
Oh right.
-_-
Stop being assholes and spending all our money on a useless war. give 5% of the military budget to NASA and they will have more than enough to get us a new launch system and have money to spare.
I am sick of spending every dollar to put our soldiers in harms way for other countries political agendas. Screw them, Screw them all. Let's spend it on science and the American people. OR, require the senators to have their children and grand children on the front line in full danger. You vote for war, then your legacy is the first to die.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.