Russian President Vladimir Putin. © RIA Novosti. Alexei Nikolskiy
The Putin Problem: U.S. Needs Russian Rockets For Spy Satellites -- Washington Times
Call it the Crimea conundrum or the Putin problem: the United States needs Russia’s RD-180 rocket engine for national security-oriented satellite launches.
The U.S. Air Force recently confirmed that Elon Musk’s private company SpaceX has completed the first of three missions required to qualify for carrying National Security Space payloads, but as of now the sole certified provider for such tasks belongs to a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co. — and Atlas V boosters need the Russian technology, Military.com reported.
“The partnership we’ve had with Russia [for] that engine has been very important, I think, to both of us, but there are number of concerns the Air Force has and others have anytime we’re relying on such an important piece of equipment from vendors outside of the United States,” Air Force Undersecretary Eric Fanning said during a breakfast with reporters on Tuesday in Washington, the defense website reported.
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My Comment: I will wager that this joint effort will not be impacted by sanctions.
2 comments:
I agree. During the cold war/space race there were high-level cooperation between NASA and the Russian space agency.
Also the International Space Station is fully dependent on the Soyuz rocket for delivery of supplies.
I don't see a situation in which that sort of level of cooperation will be broken unless of course idiots like General Dempsey, John McCain, Sarah Palin and a whole host of others who believe in hitting things with a big stick get their way.
Of course that isn't condoning the policy that Obama is taking, which Obama's foreign policy seems to tantamount to no foreign policy at all.
Of course Putin won't end it. It's one of the things he has leverage on us.
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