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Russia Forming Space Alliance With Iran, May Fly Iranian Astronaut (examiner.com)

Posted by timothy on from the strange-spacefellows dept.

MarkWhittington writes: Quietly, the Russians appear to be forming a space alliance with the Islamic Republic of Iran, according to a story in Sputnik. Not only is Russia in talks to launch Iranian satellites on Russian rockets but also to include an Iranian astronaut on a future space mission. What that space mission might be is open to question. A visit by an Iranian astronaut to the International Space Station would likely kick up a political firestorm with the United States, even though the Obama administration is attempting to develop a rapprochement with the Islamic Republic.

5 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Shouldn't that be iranian cosmonauts? by ventsyv · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Cosmonaut and astronaut are synonyms. Cosmo is of Greek origin and means "world" or "universe", and in Russian it means, space, thus "cosmonaut" is someone who has been in space. Astro comes from Greek as well but it means "star". Astronaut is a term that comes from French and literally means someone who has been to the stars (the French being more poetic here). So it doesn't matter what you call it, the two words can be used interchangeably, but for some reason US media seems to call Americans astronauts and Russians cosmonauts. Maybe a remnant from the space race?

  2. This is GOOD. Not BAD. by skaag · · Score: 5, Insightful

    People need to understand that a more technologically advanced Iran means the world will deal with a more advanced country, and a more advanced government, period. Iran has a lot of extremely smart people who's voices are not heard because they are drowned by the voices of the mentally insane.

    The sooner Iran values knowledge and science more than it values blind belief in fairy tales, the better for the rest of the world.

    --

    All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... time... to... die...

  3. Infidels by Tony+Isaac · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I thought that the reason Iranian leaders hate America so much is because it is a nation of infidels. How would Russia--with its atheist views--not be considered infidels too?

    1. Re:Infidels by AHuxley · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Iran recalls the US and UK support for Operation Ajax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      Iran also recalls US support for the Iraqi invasion of Iran in 1980 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...–Iraq_War
      ie the mischiefs of foreign intrigue.
      As far as the astronaut part goes, the Soviet Union and Russia offered places to a lot of other nations.
      List of cosmonauts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... has a list of other "Other cosmonauts" from different nations.
      Also see the Intercosmos program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  4. Re: And the bad news? by dunkelfalke · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oh come on, are you just a kid or what? This is common knowledge.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    --
    "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap