Well it had to happen sooner or later, we’ve run out of private sector jobs to out source so now it’s the government jobs we’re out sourcing, to Russia of all places where we’ll be paying them to send manned missions to the spacelab.
As an aside this is one of the few decisions that O has made that I agree with. I work in the space industry and there is no real benefit from any manned missions. They are hugely expensive and don’t yield anything that couldn’t be done with an unmanned mission. Also, space and technological innovation are a joke, most technology used in space is at least one or two generations behind commercial technology because of all the testing and qualification required before it can be used in space.
At night through a good telescope, you’ll be able to see the ChiComs on the moon. Maybe they can bring our flag back.