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Russia

Russia Complains About Another Country's Space Policy

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
April 9, 2020
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Russia Complains About Another Country's Space Policy

Russian space agency says Trump paving way to seize other planets, Reuters
“The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, accused Donald Trump on Tuesday of creating a basis to take over other planets by signing an executive order outlining U.S. policy on commercial mining in space. The executive order, which Roscosmos said damaged the scope for international cooperation in space, was signed on Monday. It said the United States would seek to negotiate “joint statements and bilateral and multilateral arrangements with foreign states regarding safe and sustainable operations for the public and private recovery and use of space resources”.
Keith’s note: It is somewhat ironic to see a resurgent Russia in search of its former USSR victories in space to complain about agressive expansion into space. The poster from the USSR’s heyday in space says “Glory to the conquerors of the universe!” Not exactly subtle intent on the part of USSR/Russia. Just sayin’

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

5 responses to “Russia Complains About Another Country's Space Policy”

  1. fcrary says:
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    Oddly (or not) this is coming from Roscosmos. Their administrator, Mr. Rogozin once said, “Tanks don’t need visas.” (In the context of Russian support for the civil war in Ukraine and himself being subject to sanctions for his involvement.)

  2. Kieran_A_Carroll says:
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    The Roscosmos response seems especially overheated, talking about

    “attempts to expropriate outer space and aggressive plans to actually seize territories of other planets.”This seems to be an over-reaction to (mis-interpretation of) the US executive order once again re-stating America’s long-held position that “the United States does not view [space] as a global commons.”

    The USA has ratified the outer Space Treaty, which states that “The exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other
    celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the
    interests of all countries,” and that “Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.” There is dispute amongst legal scholars about how to interpret those statements, particularly in light of the failed Moon Treaty which attempted to introduce that idea that “The moon and its natural resources are the common heritage of mankind,” and proceeds to prescribe an international regime approach to controlling space mining. But both the USA and USSR decided against ratifying the Moon Treaty, as have most other countries.

    The new US executive order seems to me to be consistent with the past US position on the topic. It does not repudiate the Outer Space treaty, nor say anything about expropriation of, or seizing control of territories in space. It basically sets as new policy that the US will encourage other countries to ” encourage international support for the public and private recovery and use of resources in outer space, consistent with applicable law,” explicitly including the Outer Space Treaty (which forbids the national appropriation of the Moon and other celestial bodies).

    So, it’s mysterious to me as to why the head of Russia’s space agency should make a public statement that deliberately misinterprets this US executive order. Not very professional.

    On the other hand, the United States is currently infamous for having a President who does exactly the same sort of thing — saying whatever he pleases, regardless of whether or not it is true or false. So I guess the Russians may feel that that’s the new normal, and turnabout is fair play, and you gotta fight fire with fire, etc.

    • ThomasLMatula says:
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      Yes, the United States has been consistent since the Eisenhower Administration that there should be no national appropriation of Celestial Bodies, that they should be accessible to All nations. That is in essence what the Moon Agreement does, reverses that policy by seeking to restirct access to Celestial Bodies by establishing control over their resources through the creation of a series of regimes.

      In signing this Executive Order all that President Trump is doing is reaffriming and promoting globally the provisions of the Space Resources Act of 2015 that President Obama signed.

      All that the Space Resources Act of 2015 did was recognize that under the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 priviate entities have the same right to recover and own resources (Apollo Samples, Luna Samples) extracted from Celestial Bodies, including the Moon, that national government have under it,

  3. Daryl Schuck says:
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    Sounds like the makings of another space race. Bring it.

  4. David Fowler says:
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    This checks out.