Posted on 06/13/2006 12:08:23 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
MISSILE DEFENSE BRIEFING REPORT NO. 203
Observers are warning that American plans for the deployment of space-based defenses are creating a major strategic challenge for Russia. The expected release of a new space doctrine authorizing the deployment of space-based interceptors will force Russia to "create a new theater of war, resume an unprecedented arms race, and search for an 'adequate response,'" writes commentator Andrei Kislyakov in a June 12th analysis for RIA Novosti. That response, Kislyakov says, could include the reconstitution of a robust Russian anti-satellite effort, as well as an acceleration of the Russian government's work on intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of defeating American defenses.
yeah maybe we can hire the Russkies to launch our space weapons into orbit, seeing as how all the NASA stuff stinks so bad.
Keep on this - China has the cash, while Russia still has at least rudimentary tech.
Why they see us as an enemy, however, I couldn't tell you.
space ping.
Why are our DEFENSES "a major challenge for Russia"? Are they planning to attack us? I keep hearing how the russkis are our pals.
Well, "Rods From God" isn't exactly a defensive weapon - it's in the MAD class, if so.
That said, I don't know why Russia is worried either - unless they really plan to restart their empire.
Rods From God NOW!
Yeah I had a car like the space shuttle once - it rolled for a few days every 3 years.
Yea Russian stuff is so good thats why they need the US to raise their submarines from the bottom of the ocean.
We can make those rockets also, thats "old school"
I agree but whose stuff has been keeping the Claustronauts in the $1 trillion (cost overrun) ISS in Beans, Tacoes and Borscht? Not OURS.
Maybe our defenses are for someone else. Rooskies have nothing but launch vehicles and oil. They have to keep some of their people busy.
yitbos
NASA Helps Russia Stay Aloft
by Polly Sprenger Polly Sprenger | Also by this reporter
03:00 AM Apr, 06, 1999 EDT
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado -- NASA is spending US$60 million to get space exploration back into the headlines. Pinning its hopes on the International Space Station, NASA has raided its own budget to help the Russian Space Agency launch the next phase of the project.
The service module Russia committed to deliver for the space station is more than 17 months overdue.
"The Russian service module is delayed, and this is having an impact on us," said NASA's International Space Station program manager, Randy Brinkley. "We're providing around $60 million ... and in exchange, they're delivering more hardware. We're buying additional goods and services."
Appearing at the National Space Symposium to accept an award for space achievement, Brinkley told Wired News that the deal is nothing like a bailout.
According to Brinkley, NASA and the Russian Space Agency worked out the details of the agreement in early March. Both agencies are awaiting congressional approval of the deal.
The International Space Station is a joint effort among 16 nations. The first two major portions of the station were assembled in late 1998.
The shuttle Endeavor launched 4 December with the first US component of the space station in its payload bay. Astronauts connected this component to one launched by Russia on 20 November.
These make up the first of 40 launches expected to complete the construction of the space station over the next several years. The Russian component, called the functional cargo block, provides propulsive control and power to the station during the early phases of construction, and the American component, called Node 1 and nicknamed Unity, provides ports for connecting additional sections of the space station.
The next critical component of the space station was to have been the service module, the Russians' most significant contribution to the station. The service module is the main living area for astronauts aboard the station. It also contains the docks for supply vehicles and the life support systems for all the early elements of the space station.
Brinkley said that with the cash infusion, the service module could launch in fall 1999.
Critics say that committing this financial help to the Russian Space Agency takes money away from NASA's planned funding for research aboard the space station, according to a report in the Sunday Times of London.
Keith Cowing, a space consultant and former NASA worker who helped design the ISS, told the Times that NASA's plan involves raiding the science budget.
"NASA is taking money it had set aside for the development of science experiments and payloads for the ISS and giving it to Russia to bail it out yet again," said Cowing.
"The Russians need the funding," Brinkley said. "It's critical for minimizing schedule delays."
Getting the space station constructed is more than a matter of scientific research. Aerospace companies and other industries are eagerly waiting in the wings to participate in the project. Some 30 percent of the space station's payload capacity has been set aside for commercial use.
Doug Stone, vice president of Boeing's International Space Station program, says his company will likely submit a proposal to receive some of that research capacity.
"A lot of people want to participate," Stone said. "I don't want to speculate, but I suspect Boeing will have a real interest."
The United States Space Foundation honored both NASA and Boeing for their work on the space station at a ceremony Monday night. Stone and Brinkley accepted the Space Achievement Award, which was given for the difficult task of coordinating December's launch of Node 1, and the joining of the two components in space.
The two will be heading back to Moscow on Tuesday to continue prodding the Russian Space Agency into action.
Like other attendees, NASA and Boeing have an interest in propelling the space station into orbit. Dialogues will continue in a moderated discussion, titled "Putting Space Back on the National Agenda," slated for Wednesday.
The much-publicized space flight of Senator John Glenn in November 1998 did a lot to reignite America's passion for the Final Frontier, Brinkley said. But many in the media criticized the event as only a spectacle designed to win appropriations for the space agency.
"We've been doing a lot of the same thing for a long time with the space shuttle," Brinkley said. "[America] hasn't seen the return on its investment. Only with the international space station will we have a permanent way to see research benefits from deep space [exploration]. John Glenn and the STS crew sparked an interest. It's up to us to nurture that spark."
Griffin Welcomes Russian Help In Future Space Missions
NASA's new cargo launch (left) and crew launch rockets, under development as part of the agency's Constellation Program to replace the aging shuttle fleet within a decade. Image credit: NASA
by Phil Berardelli
SpaceDaily US Editor
Washington DC (SPX) Jun 07, 2006
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said he would welcome Russian participation in future space exploration missions that go beyond the International Space Station.
At a news briefing Monday, in which Griffin and other NASA officials discussed several reorganizations under way to prepare for future human flights to the Moon and Mars under the Constellation Program, he responded to a question about the potential for more U.S.-Russian cooperation in space.
The reporter, from Aviation Week, said he had spent the previous week and Moscow and had heard "laments" from Russian space officials about NASA's lack of coordination on exploration efforts.
Griffin replied that in his travels to Russia since becoming administrator, he also has spent a good deal of time with senior officials at both Roskosmos and the S.P.Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia. With regard to robotic missions, he said, "frankly, we welcome coordination with any of the international partners who want to work with us."
He said it is a "rare NASA science mission that doesn't have a substantial international component to it," but added that it has been a long time "since the Russians have expressed any interest in planetary explorations, so with the energy dollars that are flowing into Russia, if they are interested in revitalizing their very proud history of planetary exploration, I'd say I'm all for it and we would absolutely look forward to working with them."
Griffin added that on several occasions he has said "the Russians have been great partners on (the International Space Station)." It was a tough learning experience, however, he noted.
"I was on board at the start of that learning experience and it was a tough 10 years," he said, "but the two nations have learned to work together and have forged a very effective station partnership, and the Russians have really stepped up to the plate after our loss of Columbia."
Griffin said he sees "no reason why, in the robotic, lunar and Mars programs, we cannot do the same - and I'm very willing to do that."
At the same briefing, in answer to another reporter's question about the date of the first flight of NASA's Crew Exploration Vehicle, Griffin said the testing and launch targets are financially driven.
NASA has been discussing with Congress the levels of funding that are going to be required to finish construction of the space station, and to fly the space shuttle the remaining number of scheduled times, he said, "and that level is more than what had been planned in earlier budget years."
He said after he joined NASA as administrator in April 2005 and had a chance to "review the books," as he put it, "we realized we were about $4 billion short. So, though I hated to do it, I took about $2.2 billion out of (NASA's science budget) and about $1.6 billion out of exploration in order to provide the necessary money to finish the assembly of the space station."
That funding hit imposed delays on the CEV deployment dates, which "we don't like, but we have to live with," he said. "Until we have definitized contracts for all of the elements of the CEV and CLV system and know how that plays against the budget, we won't know what the exact dates are going to be."
At this point, Griffin continued, it still looks like 2013 or 2014 for the CEV's first launch. "That complies with the law and we will do as best to improve that as we can."
He said NASA, as announced, would select a CEV contractor by late summer. "We said that last year (and) we will select that contractor at the end of August or first week of September - we think we're solidly on track and we're pretty pleased with all that."
How many such races have there been?
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