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NASA Denies New Space Station Partnership With Russia

Posted by samzenpus on from the wasn't-me dept.

schwit1 writes NASA officials today denied they were negotiating a partnership with Russia to build a space station replacement for ISS, as suggested yesterday by the head of Russia's space program. Maybe the misunderstanding comes from NASA head Charles Bolden, who is currently in Russia. Bolden probably said some nice feel-good things to the Russians, things like "We want to keep working together," and "We will support your plans for your future space station." None of this was meant as a commitment, but the Russians might have taken them more seriously than Bolden realized.

83 comments

  1. Republicans kill space exploration again! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    They'd rather stop progress than work with the Russians. Which is odd because the Russians are doing everything their kind wants them to do wrt the CIA-created "war" in Ukraine.

    1. Re:Republicans kill space exploration again! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Can you explain how going 0.1 planetary radius "up" is exploration? And what progress? It's the same damn thing for half a century.

  2. Obama's decisions will not last by amightywind · · Score: -1

    None of Obama's decisions will last. There is no point in NASA committing to anything beyond 2016. After that President Cruz will shake things up at moribund NASA.

    --
    an ill wind that blows no good
    1. Re:Obama's decisions will not last by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Yes, by trying to find Heaven through a Jesus Rocket.

    2. Re:Obama's decisions will not last by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah yeah, the Canadians... Why would you let them have the White house lol?

  3. nobody partners with NASA. - They are broken. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Even the U.S. government has no use for a bunch of beureacrats of this caliber. There will be no space station. Sorry milleniums, gen x,y,z's. We tried to tell you you're to stupid, your just finding this out now?

    1. Re:nobody partners with NASA. - They are broken. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "beureacrats "

      Can you please turn on your spell checker?

      " We tried to tell you you're to stupid"

      To stupid what?

    2. Re:nobody partners with NASA. - They are broken. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Can you please turn on your spell checker?

      It is on. But firefox is buggy with the spellchecker. Sometimes it works and sometimes it is silent. Its been going on for years and I have not been able to figure out why.

    3. Re:nobody partners with NASA. - They are broken. by sexconker · · Score: 1

      PEBCAK

    4. Re:nobody partners with NASA. - They are broken. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope. Right click on the text box and "check spelling" is checked. Doesn't get simpler than that.

    5. Re:nobody partners with NASA. - They are broken. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope. Right click on the text box and "check spelling" is checked. Doesn't get simpler than that.

      Your spell checker isn't going to tell you when you used the word "to" instead of "too". As the parent stated, PEBCAK.

    6. Re:nobody partners with NASA. - They are broken. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Your spell checker isn't going to tell you when you used the word "to" instead of "too".

      "beureacrats "

      Can you please turn on your spell checker?

      Feels good, doesn't it?

    7. Re:nobody partners with NASA. - They are broken. by ThePhilips · · Score: 1

      My FireFox on Ubuntu 14.04 routinely forgets the selected spellcheck language, and does not work until I select again the English (US).

      So no, not PEBCAK. Just Mozilla doing their fine job as usual.

      --
      All hope abandon ye who enter here.
    8. Re:nobody partners with NASA. - They are broken. by sexconker · · Score: 1

      Sure does.
      "beureacrats" is underlined in squiggly red bullshit, as it should be.

      http://imgur.com/rHQYgmt

      You've either added it to your dictionary or fucked something else up.

  4. Putin's getting desperate... by NicBenjamin · · Score: 0

    He would have confirmed this with Obama if he was still on his game. He clearly needs something to show his people that Russia is a leading nation among the entire world, and not just a regional power in Eastern Europe, and what better way then say "we're collaborating with the US on a space station no other two countries could build?"

    Putin desperation is either good or bad. If he decides he can declare victory in Donbass and calm things down (and he has the political muscle to keep the Ukrainian separatists in line) it's good for the US. If he decides he needs some other victory to appease his critics then it could get really iffy, potentially nuclear war iffy if he starts supporting separatists in Latvia (which is 25% Russian) or something similarly suicidal.

    1. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      like it or not Russia IS A LEADING nation. I know that we in the US and other parts of the western world like to look down on Russia but in many fields they are the leader, space exploration is probably one of their strongest points both historically and currently. Countries all over the world use Russian rocket technology to get shit into space, even the US. People still seem to look at Russia as it was prior to 2000, they have had a massive economic and political changes in since then yet so many can't seem to get past the old mindset or look beyond the douche that is putin.

    2. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by gman003 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Space exploration? Hardly. They haven't done any exploration since the Berlin Wall fell. NASA's putting probes on every planet they can, the ESA and JAXA are launching their own probes, even China and India are doing more exploration than Russia. The only real active area of research for Russia is on the ISS.

      Russia's just a cheap source of rockets - and that has more to do with their low cost of labor and massive subsidies than the actual cost-effectiveness of their rockets. The fact that they're currently the only way to the ISS has more to do with the political failings of NASA than any redeeming quality they have.

      PS: Russia's economy is still failing. It's not in the near-freefall it was in the 90s, but it still looks more like a big second-world country than a developed nation.

    3. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by NicBenjamin · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "Leading" is a relative term in a world dominated by the US. We're a fifth of the economy. We're most of the military spending. We have the most advanced weapons. Our culture is known world-wide. The Chinese could compete with us, if they get a few more years of 8% growth and they can figure out their aging population problem. The Europeans could also compete with us, if they'd ever get off their damn asses and give their precious sovereign right to veto every-damn-thing to the EU.

      Russia clearly belongs in the next tier, right along with the Japanese and other regional powers. But it's not like Russia can bail out small Latin American countries without noticing the hit to it's budget. But the top tier clearly could. So could the Japanese.

    4. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Dan+East · · Score: 2, Informative

      space exploration is probably one of their strongest points both historically and currently

      Russia has heavy lift capability, and that's basically it. I tried to find the last time they actually did exploration (as in probes, rovers, etc) and didn't see much of anything since the Soviet Union. Right now NASA, ESA, Japan, China and even India are all ahead of Russia as far as exploration goes, as all those organizations have active probes in space doing science. Russia is basically just hauling stuff into orbit.

      --
      Better known as 318230.
    5. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So why don't you go live there? There's more to a nation than how much kerosene they can pour into a metal tube.

    6. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by currently_awake · · Score: 1

      Putin doesn't care about what Americans think. His political base is at home, and they don't care about America either. This is more likely to be the Russian rocket makers getting desperate to justify their budget.

    7. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by NicBenjamin · · Score: 5, Interesting

      What in my post implied Putin cares what ordinary Americans think? I mentioned him trying to appease a Russian domestic audience with a space station, and potential difficulties he'd have reining in the Donbass rebels, but I said nothing about Western public opinion.

      BTW, your premise is wrong to an extent at least. All my comments got a -1 troll, the AC posting that Russia was a superpower got to +4 insightful, and everyone criticizing that blessed comment also got -1 troll. Which means the Kremlin apparently loosed it's merry band of paid internet trolls on Slashdot.

    8. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Hadlock · · Score: 1

      Leading is a relative term when you're discussing countries capable of human spaceflight. Last time I checked, the United States was paying a princely* sum to space-taxi their Astronauts to the ISS.
       
      *When I say Princely, I mean, "the United States pays more to go to the ISS than the King of Malaysia", because that's totally a thing that happened as part of an arms deal, and we still pay more than he did for the privilege, despite our station being connected to theirs.

      --
      moox. for a new generation.
    9. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I did live there for about 6 months in 2012 in St Petersburg for work. much of Russia has modernised and is really quite a pleasant place to visit or even live, especially the larger cities, people just can't seem to get past old mindsets and ignorance. Much the same is happening with China, the risk to a lot of the western world is these countries are going to leave much of the western world behind, in a few years people will be saying "how the fuck did they get so far ahead of us" as they have remained blind to the rapid advancements of these countries both economically and technologically.

    10. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "spaceflight" is a relative term when you're discussing what amounts to a tree fort in the upper atmosphere for adults with connections.

    11. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes but they will also enter the same stagnation phase as we have, it's inevitable. We cling to bizarre notions of "economy" and "work" and "employment" even though we have more than enough resources and technology to enable a just, leisure society for all.

      Instead, we just keep pushing the 40+ hour work week/education/house/career model and this eventually results in the kind of economy we have in the West: 1% productive people with 99% service and management and bureaucracy and an expanding political class.

      I find it a hideous outcome but that's the way I see it.

    12. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is actually far from inevitable. both Russia and China are very different beasts to most western economies, businesses, the general population and even government have very different outlooks and approaches to work and living. We haven't actually seen what will happen with such a different outlook, motivation and structure when they reach the same levels as other western powers. They could come to a grinding holt like the US or they could just soar past.

    13. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      like it or not Russia IS A LEADING nation..

      The only thing Russia is leading is a race to the bottom.

    14. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Soar past? This is a finite planet, and we are all identical human creatures. And no one is going anywhere, despite all the feverish delusions from the space crowd.

      Don't forget, China *was* once the kind of hidebound bureaucratic nightmare that we are heading towards. They are just swinging the pendulum around the other way, but the solution space is quite constrained, there just doesn't seem to be a rational outcome for human societies.

      All I know is if an individual exhibited the behaviors of a modern western economy, constantly cycling between euphoria and dire depression, we'd label the person as "sick" and put them on powerful medications. But entire societies? Oh no, it's normal, don't touch it.

      After all, the people in power are perfectly happy with this system and see nothing wrong with it.

      The only "medication" I see for our society is either a catastrophic bloody revolution that will come after decades of darkness, or a rational revolution. I know which way I'm betting.

    15. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Don't tell me that isn't the coolest tree fort you've ever in your life seen.

    16. Re: Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes we know your culture and we wish you just fuck off now!

    17. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by circletimessquare · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The soviet union collapsed and now russia is run by a thug dictator for life as his personal toy with immature cult of personality on the same level as north korea

      they invaded and vivisected georgia, and now invade ukraine because their feelings were hurt when slavic brothers ukraine announced it preferred to go with europe. its economy is tanking because its economy is just digging up oil

      it is 140 million people. china is 1.3 billion. eu is 500 million. both diversified and growing economies with stable governments, not politically immature kgb goon worship

      canada is small and weak over a large land area too. difference being, canada is at peace and with good relations with its neighbors. russia looks for every opportunity to piss everyone off. ultranationalism and 1950s imperialism is a fantasy of hurt egos and faded glory. it's a colossal weakness, not a strength. it only announces more aggression to come exactly as gets weaker

      russia is a dying country. the 1950s and sputnik and yuri gagarin was its highest point. everything from then on was/ is downhill

      in a hundred years, the trajectory that started with the collapse of the soviet union will continue. sibera will pass to china (outer manchuria, which russia won from china only in 1850, is going majority chinese population soon). and everything west of moscow will pass to europe by choice or by fire, as ukraine shows

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O...

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...

      they are too few people over too large an area. their economy is too weak. and their politics is mafia level intimidation amateur hour, easy to topple and push around, if not outright inviting revolution when rabid ultranationalism loses its power

      their much vaunted military will not keep up technologically and with a collapsing economy, and that's the only chip they have left that is weakening over time

      the history of central asia is replete with giant empires that rise and fall. russia is but another to come to pass, and soon. i think this century, at least the next

      no more deals with russia, especially on the space station. they are aggressive losers, any deals we make with them will not last and will be subject to further decay over time

      to russian space scientists:

      i suggest defecting to the west and private space companies. be the next sergey brin of space. he didn't make google in russia, and he never could have. the russian von brauns need to do the same

      --
      intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    18. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Our culture is known world-wide.

      Wait... we have culture?

    19. Re: Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nah, you can just suck it.

    20. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      St Petersburg is nice largely by virtue of the fact that it's almost in Europe.

      The problem is, it's about the only city in Russia that is nice. Even Sochi with it's recent many tens of billions of dollars of investment is still mostly a dump and Moscow declines in quality exponentially for every metre you move away from Red Square.

      I'm not entirely sure unless you're blinded by RT propaganda how exactly you expect Russia or China to get ahead of Western nations in a few years time. Russia is in economic decline from a point it has a population 3x that of Italy whilst it's economy is about the same size (again, and shrinking) and China is growing in wealth but still has to spread it amongst over a billion people meaning the average person in China still has a standard of living drastically lower than your average Iraqi has (based on GDP per head) despite Iraq having been devastated by war over and over for about 25 years now.

      I think you're confusing your political preference with reality, because nothing you say matches what is actually true.

    21. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by bloodhawk · · Score: 2

      Almost in Europe? what weird ass map are you looking at? it is close to some European countries, most of which are not really indicative of Europe. Russia has plenty of pretty good cities, include Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Pskov, Vladimir and quite a few others, though I have not spent enough time in others to truly judge them. You are heavily focused on the western mentality and propaganda and forgetting that most of the wests wealth is centred around a very select minority (happy to admit I am in that minority). Whilst Russia is very similar in this respect china is NOT, it has a middle and upper middle class that vastly outnumbers the entire population of the US and this group is rapidly rising in wealth. China are already only second to the US in the official number of millionaires, china has half a billion middle class.

    22. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My theory is many on slashdot probably don't own a passport so when they post about Russia or China it is based on 10 year old propaganda and not facts.
      Just because you have never been there doesn't seem to prevent many from making misleading and factually inaccurate comments.

    23. Re: Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But if only your own citizens would quit buying into it.. sigh.. but oh well, bleat about the big bad US and our lack of couth while your own citizenry adopts our ways.

      We fucking own EVERYBODY culturally.. yes, they hate us for it, but it's true.

    24. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Bonzoli · · Score: 1

      There are no Dunbass Rebels, its Russian troops with Russian Commanders.

    25. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Almost in Europe? what weird ass map are you looking at? it is close to some European countries, most of which are not really indicative of Europe.

      I'm looking at the world map, the same one normal people use, you know, the one that places St Petersburg as the closest large Russian city to Europe's borders. Oh wait, nevermind I just saw what you said, what you really mean is I'm right, but you can't face being wrong so you're going to create some made up definition of what Europe is. Ok.

      > Russia has plenty of pretty good cities, include Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Pskov, Vladimir and quite a few others

      Where by pretty good you mean a few nice tourist attractions surrounded by absolute dumps. Russia, like all dictatorships including the incredibly impoverished North Korea does a reasonable job of making the main places foreign visitors would go look fairly okay, but the real measure of quality of a city is how quickly the state of it degrades beyond that, and the answer is in Russia is VERY quickly whilst equivalent cities in Europe, the US, and other 1st world territories remain pretty nice all the way out.

      > You are heavily focused on the western mentality and propaganda and forgetting that most of the wests wealth is centred around a very select minority (happy to admit I am in that minority).

      No I'm focussed on statistical fact. This is something very different to your arbitrary definitions.

      > china is NOT, it has a middle and upper middle class that vastly outnumbers the entire population of the US and this group is rapidly rising in wealth.

      No, not even close:

      http://www.zerohedge.com/sites...

      With regards to billionaires specifically, it's a meaningless metric. Russia has more billionaires than places like France, the UK and Canada, but all these countries offer a drastically better standard of living for the entirety of their citizenry. Often, unless like the US there's just an awful lot more money to go around, more billionaires just means more corruption - that's certainly the case with Russia's oligarchs for example that heavily profited from the fall of the USSR, it says nothing about quality of life or general distribution or levels of wealth.

      > china has half a billion middle class.

      Chinese middle class != western middle class.

      However you desperately try and spin it, China still has to split $9tn of income between 1.3bn people, whilst the US gets to split $16tn between 0.31bn people and the EU $18tn between 0.53bn people.

      Chinese growth is already slowing, and Russia's has gone into reverse. Why would you assume they'll ever catch up based on the status quo? They have too many structural problems that their brute force economic techniques are ceasing to be able to override. Unless they tackle corruption, and properly invest in infrastructure and education on a wider scale, they're never going to be able to catch up. They'll certainly get wealthier, but never be as wealthy without solving those fundamental problems.

    26. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by NotDrWho · · Score: 1

      The U.S. also has also accumulated a $18 trillion national debt to pay for all that prosperity, all that "we've got the biggest dick" military spending, all that corporate welfare, all those entitlements, etc.

      And it's growing at about $500 billion a year now.

      When the credit card bill finally comes due some day, the party ends.

      --
      SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    27. Re: Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Every exporter requires a matching importer. American culture would 'fuck off now' if you'd quit buying it.

    28. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Any group develops culture. The fact we can't recognize that shows that ours is the dominant culture - we see ourselves as the default and all culture that deviates from ours is flourish. Stripped of "culture", we imagine, everyone would be like us.

      If that's not hubris I don't know what to call it.

    29. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The party ends eh? You're not one of those idiots who think we owe anybody except for ourselves, right?

      Anybody with a clue knows that the US people owns the national debt. In addition, if you think our debt to GDP ratio is anything to write home about, you might look around a bit; almost the entire EU and Japan are right up there with us. The difference is, we have the political muscle and central bank to manipulate our debt, many others do not.

    30. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I believe you confuse European Union with Europe. Dumps also exist in EU countries nowdays because of the uncontrolled imigration influx.

    31. Re: Putin's getting desperate... by samwichse · · Score: 1

      http://tech.slashdot.org/story...

    32. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by samwichse · · Score: 1

      Yup.

      http://tech.slashdot.org/story...

    33. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You just keep telling yourself that.

      I bet Greeks used to think that too.

    34. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by dunkelfalke · · Score: 1

      True enough. There were, in fact, two probes (Mars and Phobos), but both weren't able to leave the LEO.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    35. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      The rocket market isn't just a "failing" of NASA, they were confident that those rockets would be on the market, so they accepted having to use them for a few years in order to be able to afford other things on their limited budget.

      Especially now that there are multiple new rockets coming to market to compete in that space, it doesn't look like a failing at all. It looks like they have quality analysts, actually.

      They didn't trip over their shoelaces and accidentally end up having to buy Russian rockets.

    36. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by NicBenjamin · · Score: 1

      You wanna know what an MD in her first year of residency has? A 350% debt-to-personal-GDP ratio. Post-residency she's still in the 150-200% range. You wanna know what a 19-year-old home depot cashier at $9.25 an hour has? No debt at all. You wanna guess which one of those women will have a more financially stable future?

      Compare that to the US. Yes we have a lot of debt. but we have it mostly because some idiot insisted on cutting taxes without cutting spending, financed two major wars 100% via debt, and then didn't notice that light touch mortgage regulations were about to cripple the economy and fuck everyone over. That a) tanked Federal revenue, while b) drastically increasing social spending because unemployed people qualify for a lot more food stamps, which would have been bad enough if that idiot hadn't already had us running a sizable deficit.

      Now if any of us actually gave a shit about the deficit (rather then giving a shit about manipulating people to support our other policy positions) it would be trivial to fix. Raise the income tax five points, fire the Army because we've got Marines, abolish NASA, implement a massive Federal VAT, or any number of ideas could fix it single-handed.

      But like I said, nobody who claims to care about the deficit actually cares about the deficit. They care about manipulating moderates into supporting their social-engineering scheme to either a) cut government spending because it's a threat to freedom and the American way of life, or b) jack up the income tax rate because inequality is a threat to freedom and the American way of life.

      Which one are you?

    37. Re:Putin's getting desperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where by pretty good you mean a few nice tourist attractions surrounded by absolute dumps.

      That pretty well describes most large cities in the world, especially American ones like New York, LA, especially Washington, Miami, orlando, new Orleans (hell new Orleans doesn't even have a nice area).

  5. Go away russia. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Nobody wants to play with you anymore because you're an asshole.

    1. Re:Go away russia. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just see this as Russia trying to get more money from us through renting more launches before our private industry fills that void.

      I don't think there are any issues among the staff of the ISS, so at least inter personal problems are avoided by working with them. Just national problems. I wouldn't work with Russia until a few years after we remove sanctions or Putin leaves (which ever comes last).

    2. Re:Go away russia. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      +1000

  6. Do not believe anything by turkeydance · · Score: 2

    until it has been officially denied.

  7. Bolden ... FAIL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    ,

    Ret. Marine Gen. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden trips up on the most simple of requirement for a USA Federal Bureaucrat !

    The Obama Regime Will ... Not ... Be KIND.

    For this transgression, Bolden, will opt for immediate execution! He knows his transgression ... too ... grave.

    A life ends.

    [unfortunately Slashdot pitifully does not understand Russian language!]

    Ha ha

    Sad.

  8. Why NOT cooperate with them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can't build and support a station in this economy by yourself.

    1. Re:Why NOT cooperate with them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But why does it depend on the economy? I've been assured that space exploration is so full of spinoffs, and space itself so full of resources that it pays for itself? I mean, just look at the nation that went into space first, clearly their population benefited massively from the head-start into space.

    2. Re:Why NOT cooperate with them? by NicBenjamin · · Score: 0

      You could actually. $10 Billion a year for 10 years is peanuts in the context of a $Trillion budget.

      The issue is that poisonous combination of a) deficit hawks, and b) partisan gridlock which makes it impossible to do anything that costs money. c), the ideological elites absolute commitment to low taxes on itself means that even during flush times (ie: the late '90s- early 2000s) it won't happen.

      If you want the government to buy nice things that are not tax cuts you have to vote in the Democratic primaries so that the Dem who wins is not one of those free-market obsessives who are honestly convinced the economy grows much faster with a top tax rate of 38%; and then you have to vote for that guy in the General election.

    3. Re:Why NOT cooperate with them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sadly the Dems don't spend money on NASA either, there just isn't the pocket lining potential there. They'll stick with unions. Maybe if commercial space flight starts to take off and there needs to be a refueling station or something in orbit then somebody with a large enough "influence" could purchase a few politicians.

      I think the Repubs are more likely to fund it because there could be a related military capability.

    4. Re: Why NOT cooperate with them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Militarizing space is against international law.

    5. Re:Why NOT cooperate with them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who you going to borrow it from? You have run a deficit far more then a surplus

      http://www.davemanuel.com/history-of-deficits-and-surpluses-in-the-united-states.php

    6. Re:Why NOT cooperate with them? by NicBenjamin · · Score: 1

      Who do you think makes rockets? The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace workers.

      Who do you think processes rocket fuel? The Steelworkers.

      Who do you think designs the damn things in government labs? Government employees, most of whom are unionized.

      The current Republican party will never fund any of these groups, partly because some of them are Evil Unions, and partly because the lesson the GOP base learned from the Bush years was that government spending is an evil in it's own right.

  9. Putin's Style by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > the Russians might have taken them more seriously than Bolden realized.

    Kinda like that time some dumbass billionaire was showing off his superbowl ring and Putin thought it was a gift.

  10. USA and Russia Not Happy Friends? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No Yipppppeeeeeeee!!!!!!

    1. Re:USA and Russia Not Happy Friends? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No Yipppppeeeeeeee!!!!!!

      Yipppe

  11. NASA falls into the Russian trap, again ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    TFA seems to think that the Russians are beyond pale, that they are so clueless that they took a common 'nice feeling comment' as a commitment from NASA - which can't be further from the truth

    The Russians ~ and the rest of the world ~ already know that NASA - under the Democrat administration - is often underfunded, especially under the Obama administration, and the Russians also know that NASA simply can't locate any funding for a new space station. What the Russians were doing is to set up a trap and let NASA falls in

    The Russians have their own space station plan - actually two plans

    Plan A is to continue to upgrade their portion of the ISS

    Plan B is to somehow integrate whatever they have (experience / hardware, whatever) with China / EU / India, or whoever has a plan for a new space station

    NASA is never featured in either of the two plans - or in other words, the Russians already decided to stop their cooperation with NASA pass 2022

    Then why the head of the Russian space program said what he said yesterday --- to force NASA to come out with an official denial - like what NASA just did --- so that they (the Russians) can official wash their hands clean and declare to the world that it is not that they do not want to work with NASA, it is NASA who no longer wants to work with the Russian

    1. Re:NASA falls into the Russian trap, again ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The Russians ~ and the rest of the world ~ already know that NASA - under the Democrat administration - is often underfunded, especially under the Obama administration, and the Russians also know that NASA simply can't locate any funding for a new space station. What the Russians were doing is to set up a trap and let NASA falls in

      NASA has been underfunded by every administration since the late 1970s... Democrat, Republican, doesn't really matter.

    2. Re: NASA falls into the Russian trap, again ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There have been different administrations since 1970s?

    3. Re: NASA falls into the Russian trap, again ! by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      '64, actually...

  12. NASA falls into the Russian trap, again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    TFA seems to think that the Russians are beyond pale, that they are so clueless that they took a common 'nice feeling comment' as a commitment from NASA - which can't be further from the truth

    The Russians ~ and the rest of the world ~ already know that NASA - under the Democrat administration - is often underfunded, especially under the Obama administration, and the Russians also know that NASA simply can't locate any funding for a new space station. What the Russians were doing is to set up a trap and let NASA falls in

    The Russians already have their own space station plan in motion - actually two plans

    Plan A is to continue to upgrade their portion of the ISS

    Plan B is to somehow integrate whatever they have (experience / hardware, whatever) with China / EU / India, or whoever has a plan for a new space station

    NASA is never featured in either of the two plans - or in other words, the Russians already decided to stop their cooperation with NASA post 2022

    Then why the head of the Russian space program said what he said yesterday --- to force NASA to come out with an official denial - like what NASA just did --- so that they (the Russians) can official wash their hands clean and declare to the world that it is not that they do not want to work with NASA, it is NASA who no longer wants to work with the Russian

  13. We forgave the Russians once... by Karmashock · · Score: 1, Troll

    ... We will need substantive evidence of their change of character before we commit to further projects.

    If the Russians are determined to be enemies of the West, then it is in our interests to see that they are as technologically regressed as possible. That means not sharing computer or rocketry technology that they can use to make weapons etc.

    It is very sad. We tried so hard to be their friends. The Chinese broke with the Russians in large part because they understood the stupidity of this pointless hostility between our people's.

    China has prospered from that realization. All the wealth and power that is now China's could have been Russia's. That and more. They could have remained a super power and then some. They could have been incredibly wealthy.

    But they pissed it all away for nothing... just as Putin is pissing away Russia's second chance for nothing.

    Whether Russia gets a third chance is entirely speculative. The Russians are profoundly pigheaded. And given that they are unlikely to even admit they're doing stupid things it is unlikely that their position can be salvaged.

    What they are forcing the west to do is cut them off. Isolate them. Starve them of trade. Surround them with strong military defenses that they cannot breach... and wait until after a generation of poverty and isolation they crack.

    Last time Russia gave up a big portion of their territory. The next surrender of territory will probably be in their east. Siberia etc are all likely forfeit. The US won't take these things. The west won't take them. We'll just make the Russians too weak to stop their eastern neighbors from taking it.

    Hopefully whatever is left of Russia when this is concluded is wiser.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    1. Re:We forgave the Russians once... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Russia will never surrender Siberia. You're dreaming...

    2. Re:We forgave the Russians once... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the two biggest enemies of the West are the manifest destiny and the American insistence on being above the local law.
      How many American war criminals have been tried since Nurnberg process?

      Why not? =)

    3. Re:We forgave the Russians once... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      About the same number as Russian war criminals I would imagine. You know, like the one that's currently running the country and has openly admitted he's a war criminal because he's openly admitted he sent regular soldiers into Crimea whilst passing them off as civilians which is a breach of the Geneva convention that exists to try and prevent civilians being made targets because it's no longer clear who is and isn't the enemy.

      Russia can't really complain about speculative war criminals from America, when their own leader is a self-confessed one.

    4. Re:We forgave the Russians once... by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Which Americans would you say have committed war crimes?

      And in what court would you try them?

      The underlying fallacy of your position is these two concepts:

      1. World court.
      2. International law.

      Neither one exists. There is no such thing.

      For there to be a world court, you'd need a supreme international authority was above every nation.

      No such entity exists.

      For there to be international law, you'd need an international senate or law making body that every nation on earth was responsible to and then you'd need to empower that law making body with an executive capable of overwhelming any nation on earth. No such senate or executive exists.

      You are basically presuming that there is a world government when there clearly isn't one.

      That there is international law at all is due to nations like the US enforcing treaties and punishing people it feels need to be punished. Absent the US's military might... exactly who is gong to enforce your rules, little one? No one.

      You're spitting into the wind. Every little bit of phlegm you tried to speckle on my face is rust running down your own stupid cheeks.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    5. Re:We forgave the Russians once... by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      I'm not suggesting they'll surrender anything. I'm saying they'll be too weak to hold it.

      Their population is declining, their economy is declining, their neighbors are becoming wealthier and more technologically sophisticated...

      Russia is the sick man of Asia. It is headed for the same crack up that the Ottoman empire went through.

      We offered them a way out of that. A way to keep everything they have and become wealthier and more powerful than they've ever been. And they spat in our faces...

      They're idiots.

      Russia must ally with the west. It cannot survive another cold war with the west. The last one crushed Stalin's empire... What Putin has is a remnant... the end game is unavoidable.

      This is a game of attrition. We will grab them by the throat economically and squeeze. And in 30 years... what is left will either be ignorable or more pliable.

      The Russians have asked the west a very dangerous question "oh yeah, what will you do to make me, huh?"... We are not without resources. If the Russians were wise, they'd stop this stupidity, sue for peace, and try to patch relations. Then the isolation might only last 5 or 10 years. If they don't stop... the isolation could last 30 years or more.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  14. SHOCK: Feel good comments beeing taken seriously? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hi,

    as with english as a language, culture and capitalism, you simply assume everybody and anybody else will put up with it. Hollywood tells you so, right? =)

    So it's the bloody outisde's world's problem, if something beeing said by an US official at an offical meeting is beeing taken seriously.

    Uhmmmmm...

    Happy Easter! =)

  15. So watch out what you say. by houghi · · Score: 3, Insightful

    When you say you want to work together, it seems logical that people might get the idea that you would want to work together.

    I would not call that 'misunderstanding' I would call that 'lying'.

    And if you are an official spokesperson of the NASA, you should know how to say things.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    1. Re:So watch out what you say. by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      When you say you want to work together, it doesn't mean you agreed to specific plans together.

      Just like, if somebody says, "we should go to coffee sometime," it doesn't mean that you have plans to go to coffee together. It means you have a shared desire to schedule that activity at a future time.

      The person claiming a specific agreement when only a general spirit of cooperation was offered, that is the person lying.

  16. Grandfather's hammer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One would have expected the modular space station to last indefinitely.

    Over time, they might replace all the pieces, but it is still the same station.

    I wonder if the is a fatigue limit on the central nodes?

  17. Skip the station; Focus on the moon and mars by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    Seriously, the ISS group needs to skip a new station and allow private space to take that on.

    Instead, the ISS group should focus on getting a base on the Moon and then on Mars. Private Space will be going to the moon around 2020-2022. Europe, Japan, Canada, Russia, etc should join the private space and push to create the side infrastructure that can be used on the moon. In particular, robotics, nuclear power, etc.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.