Russia plans to leave International Space Station

[Greg Bernhardt]

Political chess move or is there some actual danger of it? If they do abandon the station, what then?

(CNN) -- Russia said it does not plan to use the International Space Station beyond 2020, casting a shadow on U.S. plans to continue cooperation with the country and extend the life of the orbiting laboratory until at least 2024.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told reporters Tuesday that Russia is looking to redirect its attention to other projects after 2020. His comments come as tensions mount over U.S. sanctions on Russia for its role in the crisis in Ukraine.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/13/us/russia-international-space-station-plans/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

 

[phinds]

I think we are likely to have other launch vehicles before then so if we want to keep spending the money I suspect we can. They may even be willing to continue their launch services but doubt if the US government will continue to rely on them.

 

[Monsterboy]

Political chess move or not, i think it is time for the US to look beyond the ISS and maybe begin plans for a lunar base! after coming up with a new launch vehicle (as Russia is going to ban the use of Soyuz in the US).This is what i feel.

 

[phinds]

Political chess move or not, i think it is time for the US to look beyond the ISS and maybe begin plans for a lunar base! after coming up with a new launch vehicle (as Russia is going to ban the use of Soyuz in the US).This is what i feel.

Do you seriously think the American public will be willing to PAY for such a base any time soon?

 

[Monsterboy]

Do you seriously think the American public will be willing to PAY for such a base any time soon?

Thats why i said "this is what I FEEL".
Economic crisis won't last forever , the public is always skeptical of space programs not just in the US but all over the world and the present economic condition is perfect for them to call off anything related to space .I am not expecting anything immediately (obviously) .If we go by the public ,we would not have had the ISS or worse we would not have landed on the moon itself.

I understand that it will take decades and decades of research, planning and investment ,even if it takes a trillion dollars ,it will be spread over many decades plus a few other countries might cooperate and it will do good to remember that a trillion is not really an alarmingly big number when we are talking about military budgets.All that research will also yield spinoff technologies that will benefit the industry and the economy overall. Sadly i do not think the political will can ever be strong enough for decades to come.

 

[Monsterboy]

Can anyone the give list of all the benefits we reaped from the time spent on research in the ISS?

If the moon base is too unrealistic ,why not detach the Russian modules(if they demand it) and plan a rotating space station(for artificial gravity) that is even bigger and continue with the research, like the Nautilus-X except that it will be a station and not a spacecraft and it will be a little bigger as Nautilus-X is only for six-person crew.

 

[Czcibor]

At least in Poland we have a Schadenfreude. If you really need those rockets maybe you should offer in exchange not blocking purchasing by them next communication satellite after their Proton M rocket exploded? ;)

 

[Dotini]

It's a political chess move. Obviously, because it is taken as part of a host of new sanctions taken against the US and the EU by Russian in response to those taken against Russia.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/may/15/us-space-military-programme-russia-sanctions

On 30 April, Space X (Elon Musk, of PayPal and Tesla fame) filed a protest with the US court of federal claims over bulk-buying of the Russian rockets. A temporary ban on importing the RD-180s was ordered because the company responsible for their manufacture, NPO Energomash, was said to be under the control of Rogozin, who is on the US sanction list over Ukraine.

Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's deputy prime minister, has announced it will halt the export of rocket engines crucial to the US military defence and space programmes.

 

[AlephZero]

On 30 April, Space X (Elon Musk, of PayPal and Tesla fame) filed a protest with the US court of federal claims over bulk-buying of the Russian rockets.

Musk's real beef is that the US military are not buying his rockets, of course. He got the courts to impose a a temporary ban on buying RD-180s, but that was quickly overturned.

According to a report in today's FT, the US has a stockpile of RD-180s that should last for one or two years. The RD-180 is more fuel efficient than the alternatives designed by Boeing or P&W Rocketdyne.

Space-X have not yet started any military safety and performance certification testing, so they are years away from being a potential military supplier even if they have a product.

 

[TheAustrian]

I think some people feel that the ISS has served it's purpose already. Russian Federal Space Agency has more grand plans for the future. (Moon Base, Asteroid Mining, Reaching Mars in a manned spaceflight)

Additionally, in business circles, America is starting to be seen as an unreliable trade/business partner due to it's habit of imposing sanctions unilaterally. Such behaviour causes mistrust.

 

[Chronos]

Maybe because their business 'partners' have proven unreliable.

 

[dipole]

The ISS long served what little purpose it had... let it burn gracefully in the atmosphere and splash into the ocean and be rid of it!