Russia Says That China May Visit ISS
Russians may visit China’s orbital module, TASS
“Russian cosmonauts may in the future visit the Chinese orbiting module Tiangong-1, and their Chinese colleagues may visit the International Space Station (ISS), head of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) Oleg Ostapenko said on Wednesday. “As for the possible manned flight program projects, China has such an interest and they have expressed it in the negotiations we held today,” Ostapenko said, answering reporters’ questions at the Airshow China 2014 International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition.”
Ole Frank Wolf would have a heart attack…..
Fortunately, he’ll be out of office in six weeks.
Nah…fly them their aboard the F9 and go for a Frank Wolf aneurysm.
I guess Americans can’t visit because we have no way to get there (unless we buy a Russian ticket).
Every space tourist who’s visited ISS did so while the Shuttle was still operating, but rode on Soyuz anyway. So, no change in the situation.
This makes me happy. Maybe the NASA portion will be open too.
Indeed. The more the merrier I say. Indians? Come on down! (err, up…). ESA? Anyone else?
Touche, Frank Wolf!
“But…he’ll see everything, he’ll… he’ll see the Big Board!”
Commander Ferraday (Rock Hudson) discovers Boris Vaslov (Ernest Borgnine) roaming around the Tigerfish –
Ferraday: I thought you might be lost.
Vaslov: Me? never. I am out exploring. that is my passion.
Ferraday: Next time, you might ask one of us along.
I’d be sensitive to your argument if it weren’t for the fact that we long ago shipped our entire manufacturing base to China and now have to buy nearly everything from them.
I’d say our nations are pretty intimately tied together at this point.
(And when I say “shipped to,” I mean it literally. I worked at a famous US manufacturer when all of the massive room-sized molds and tooling were being disassembled in NY, KY and IN and literally shipped over…)
I sympathize with your situation, but it was your employer who made the decision. If American companies insist on making shortsighted decisions to outsource to boost short-term profits for their American stockholders while leaving their American employees out of work, they can’t blame China for the results.
I agree. I’m just saying that stomping our feet about China visiting the International Space Station when we are at this point inextricably tied to (and reliant on) them would be just a show of bluster… not a real “stand” against anything.
China has the world’s second largest economy and is one of only two nations with the current ability to send humans into orbit. The other is Russia. The US will rejoin them when Commercial Crew becomes operational. China has been launching humans into space for only 10 years, but in that time they have demonstrated EVA, both automated and manual docking, and operations with a Salyute-class space station. They aren’t rookies, and it is nonsensical to try to exclude them from the International Space Station.
You know, that should be ok, ideologies differences apart. But there should be some rules.
1) All the Shenzhou capsules docking to the ISS should have a Chinese, Russian and American crew. They should be well trained and know all the ins and out of the Shenzhou ship and all the training requirements at the Chinese launch site. Just in case there is an emergency at launch, in the ISS, and at landing and recovery.
2) If they are going to become permanent members of ISS (lets say after the second trip to ISS), They should provide a space module that every ISS contributor should know its ins and outs. Also all the ISS contributors should understand all the procedures and methods of the Chinese civilian space program , including communication, operations, restrictions, etc. If they don’t have one, better start working on one.
Also kind of a side note:
1) Americans should have their own method to go there to avoid “the trampoline launching comment” when political issues get testy in the next 5 to 10 years
2) Figure of ways to deal with our Asian contributors (Japanese and Chinese, each one providing a good spacious module) get testy when there are unannounced motions of littoral limits around energy strategic islands.
Alvaro
Ideology issues? China is as capitalist as the US, maybe more so. It’s our largest overseas trading partner. While they haven’t adopted multiparty democracy, no government in China can remain in power without popular support. They have learned a lot since Tianamin Square. The pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong have gone on for months with minimal interference. The most significant value of the ISS is to allow former adversaries to work together and develop the trust and understanding needed to avoid future wars.
Ideology issues is not only defined by the capitalism/socialism divide, saying that they are more capitalistic is just a red-herring.
They maybe more capitalistic than us (I think they use the capitalistic ideas of the US in the 19 century) , but the rest of our approach to the world are much different from theirs… Thinking about it, they have this 19 century idea of the world, (with a Confucius twist) that the US just to have in that century.
Is not that we are enlightened, is just that China has this zero sum approach to the world that requires that the US most be down so they can ascend (part because they have a billion plus population that they have to deal with, but that is not an excuse).
Also, think about this. The last 2 or 3 years they have increased the anti-American rhetoric for internal and external consumption, got into skirmishes with their neighbors, and at the same time the Russians, who are playing the same game (anti-American rhetoric) wants to invite them to come and live in the ISS (the proverbial poke in the eye). How awkward is that? Yes, we are doing right now with the Russian because we don’t have another option, an that is our fault, but should be fixed in 3 years (forbid congress and/or the president come with another bonehead idea)
BTW: right now the partnership in ISS has not prevented wars (see the Ukrainian conflict and the talk of cold war), and maybe has become a blackmail tool to the US (part our fault). Just see the comment of the Russians to make us launch our astronauts using trampolines.
Alvaro
I think Vulture4 is not necessarily a fan of the Chinese program. I think (and I can be corrected) that he is not a fan of the decisions made by the US government, and I think he is trying to poke the eye of some one up there, so they get serious about it. Also, I would venture to say that he is a fan of humankind becoming space-faring and he is a bit (just a bit) more machiavelic on the ways to get to that point (I hope, I don’t have to explain that one). While I am (and probably you are) a bit more scrupulous about getting humankind in space.
Alvaro
The person who poked people in the eye was Mike Griffin. Attending an international conference in China, his hosts invited him to tour their launch site, a gesture meant to simply build understanding. He demanded a commitment to see anything at all at the installation. When his guests demurred, he turned them down flat, saying he had seen enough launch pads.
I’d say it’s going OK considering the fact that we’d be completely grounded for years without them…