Actually I think Russia is still at least even and for maybe 20 years was uncontested as ahead ahead of the US in automated space manuvering and docking.
OTOH Russia is slipping away into the conspiracy theories and other people blaming to cover for the rampant corruption which make them bad partners for any venture, even if their tech is the best.
I would rather the US partner with China, despite their human rights problems, for manned space access until the next gen than remain tied to Putinās homophobic expansionist self esteem issues with nukes junta.
(edit)At least Russia still has manned space, is there even a timeline anymore for realistic US manned space?
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Yeah, Russiaās a pretty awful place. And quickly going down a very scary road, but their space program has been far safer than ours, despite shaky budgets.
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I imagine astronauts in space watching Gravity is more rowdy than a Rocky Horror screening on earth. It damn well better be. God, that film made me crossā¦
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The Russians didnāt fall down a paperclipped Naziās spaceplane rabbithole, until they did with Buran and it was one of several programs which bankrupted a superpower. Shuttle was kinda neat but inherently problematic; all duct taped to the side of the launch stack. Soyuz worked for getting people and stuff to and from space, it was a Suzuki Swift mated with a rocket and a Kalashnakov. They let heavy launch go alone and rendezvous if they needed to. Shuttle was advertised as a truck, WTF were the Americans doing pinning 100% of manned space for thirty years on a dump truck to space. The reusability was so difficult to acheive it was actually quite carbon negative to grab the SRBs, and 133 huge sealed fuel tanks already flown into space at a precious price were deorbited instead of cheaply boosting them for a massive space station or other in orbit recycling.
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By precious price even little boy me was a bit freaked to hear that they pulled the ejection seats after STS-02 and there was no escape which would have saved some of the Challengerās crew. Both SHuttle losses were because the manned space vehicle was strapped to the side of two SRBs and a massive fuel tank. It is also expensive, in the M$ to fly a massive fuel tank into orbit, the fuel to orbit it has already been burned, just to let it fall back down. We could have orbitally dumpster dived together a ship the size of Battlestar Galactia by now for a few million bucks in additional costs.
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I hear the realistic directors cut is just of the loop the scene of Sandra Bullock spinning out of control for the full running time and then cuts to black.
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I remembered (or misremembered)* something like this happening a couple of years ago, following a commercial launch. The spacecraft was rapidly spinning, so they deflected the solar panels early in order to slow down the spin, to the point where they were able to regain control. Not sure if thatās possible (or if they already tried it) with this mission.
*I thought it might have been a SpaceX launch, but according to Wikipedia, it happened differently from how I remember it.
Itās a bit early to call Russia a āfailed state.ā A brutal, repressive regime that retains control is not āfailed.ā Off the top of my head, Iād expect widespread anarchy and/or starvation before applying that label. Putin, awful as he is, is IMO much too canny to let things slide in that direction.
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Probably right, definitionsā¦Perhaps not the Somalia or 90s Afghanistan failed scenario, but rather failed as in our expectations that Russia would eventually join the rest of Europe either as or like a major EU member like Germany or France.
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