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Iran Forced To Cancel Its Space Program

Posted by samzenpus on from the no-space-for-you dept.

MarkWhittington writes The War is Boring blog reported that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been obliged to cancel its nascent space program. This development means that former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's dream of being the first astronaut to be launched into space by Iran have been dashed. Ironically, Anousheh Ansari, who was obliged to flee to the United States from Iran to avoid religious oppression, remains the only Iranian-born space traveler. She did it by going to Texas, making her fortune in the electronics business, and paying for her trip to the International Space Station.

9 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. Too bad! by taiwanjohn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Whatever you think of their politics, I'm sorry to see them leave the club, even if it's only temporarily. Spaceflight is one of the few remaining areas of "friendly rivalry" where everybody still cheers for the other teams' success, even as we hope to best them. Nobody ever watches a launch and thinks "I hope it explodes! I hope it explodes!" No... you always think "Go, baby, go!"

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
    1. Re:Too bad! by neilo_1701D · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Then I guess you forgot about some Arabs cheering in the streets as Columbia broke up.

    2. Re:Too bad! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You can always find idiots who will cheer about someones misfortune. They exist all over the world, even on slashdot.

    3. Re:Too bad! by tnk1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Don't discount the fact that a significant minority of the world has been working towards keeping Iran out of the nuclear club. Small countries can have success with nuclear programs and also long range rocketry. It's not like they need to reinvent the wheel to get these things.

      If you run a tightly managed and budgeted program to build a nuke these days, you can probably do it on a (relative) shoestring. What the West has done is work to increase the overhead for completing the project to unsustainable levels, both directly via sabotage and embargoes, and indirectly via sanctions.

      Iran could probably afford to assemble weapons, what it cannot do is afford to do that and maintain high security in addition to lack of access to experts and materials.

  2. Re:Where did you read WHO forced them? by gman003 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From the tone of the articles, it seems more like "they couldn't justify continued funding with current levels of success". In other words, they're having a budget crunch (not unreasonable given the current economy), and the space program vanity-project was one of the first things on the chopping block.

  3. Hurrah for America, the land of opportunity by mi · · Score: 3, Insightful

    She did it by going to Texas, making her fortune in the electronics business, and paying for her trip to the International Space Station.

    Now, if an immigrant from a 3rd-world country — coming here with little English and knowledge of culture, can do it, what is the excuse of the natively born-and-raised Americans?

    Whom can they blame for being unable to afford whatever they want by age of 40?

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    1. Re:Hurrah for America, the land of opportunity by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Selection bias. Only the restless care to leave their homes and support networks behind to try to navigate an alien, racist culture where people are measured by how much money they make.

      I'm concerned about the dog-whistle racism in your post. It sounds like you're bitching about a certain group that was recently the victim of police violence.

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      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  4. Re:Self-aggrandizing by tnk1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Others could say that, but the fact remains that this is how she managed it.

    Although I understand the desire to point out that the US has no monopoly on successful immigrants, it is also important to point out that this is something you can do as someone who moves to America. If she had moved to Britain or France or Germany and had the same career, would that not reflect credit on those countries as well?

    More to the point, leaving Iran isn't enough. There are a lot of places she could have gone which might not have allowed her to succeed.

  5. Re:WHO forced them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They are diversifying by buying assets in the US. When the oil finishes they (Saudi elite)will move to the US and leave the Saudi population to wallow in misery. This is not a democracy we are talking about here