Posted on 03/04/2022 12:21:35 PM PST by Jan_Sobieski
Worth noting that SpaceX isn’t *completely* ready to take over yet - and the “emergency lifeboat” ship docked at the ISS in case the inhabitants have to evacuate is a Russian Soyuz, which gets rotated out for another on a regular basis. The Soyuz is old enough and tested enough that the things can be left up there on an extended basis. Dragon hasn’t been certified to do that.
Dmitry Rogozin, director-general of Roscosmos, announced that Russia would be halting the delivery of rocket engines to the US, saying “let them fly into space on their brooms,”
“Paging Mr. Elon Musk, please pick up the white courtesy phone.”
The issue with that is that nobody else’s engines slot into the various US launch systems that used Russian engines. That leaves us with just SpaceX and some of the systems that use Blue Origin engines - being stuck with a single or limited providers is not good.
A space guy on TV said that the big thing is maintaining orbit. That was the Russians job. Since they just boosted it to a higher orbit, it will be fine for 3 months - after which someone is going to have to give it a boost again. Or the orbit will continue to decay to reentry.
Wanna bet an ice cream bar that Russia will claim the ISS space station as IT’S PROPERTY entirely???
I wondered since the start of us working with Russia on this, if it was wise.
For the exact scenario that is happening .
What do we need Russia?
Foolish.
Plus, there are many more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_spaceflight_companies
A lot of those companies on that list were depending on Russian engines. There are US alternatives in development at the current time, but the only ones flying currently are the SpaceX and Blue Origin engines, which are not direct replacements. Given reasonable time, that won’t be a problem, but pretending like the Russians can bail from the venture without there being any significant issues on our side is both ignorant and dangerous.
Biden is okay with that, as long as they are “electric” brooms!
Officially TBD but SpaceX is scheduled to carry people to the ISS on March 30th.
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Maybe now is not the best time to send people there but rather to pick up people?
How many times do Russian engines fly?
Of course Elon’s are more expensive, they’re made to be reused, along with the boosters they’re attached to.
At least NASA can still focus on their most important mission. Making Muslims feel good about themselves.
That is certainly appropriate for many members of the US government these days.
SpaceX made 31 launches last year, all successful. They PLAN to make 52 this year. Generally the schedules are optimistic, but, I’m gonna guess they could do 40-45 with a loan to help in certain areas. Definitely money to build a few extra boosters, accelerate replacements for Russki engines, etc.
If pinched, cut back on commercial launches or Starlink, tho’ I hate to see Starlink NOT be the 2020’s equivalent of VOA.
SpaceX engines & systems are well proven now, it should not be THAT hard to ramp them up for more Falcon 9 Heavy’s, etc. It might take a year, though.
Perfect.
I wonder how tense things are on the ISS about now. 4 US crew, 1 German, 2 Russians. Soviet Soyuz scheduled to head up there in about a month, I think?
It’d be grand if we could get a cosmonaut to defect!
“I thought I was looking at a sci-fi movie when I first saw it.”
Same here.
“I thought I was looking at a sci-fi movie when I first saw it.”
Same here.
Why do we need ISS???
We all were thinking the same thing.
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