Rogozin Threatens To Do Something TBD on March 31st. Or Else. Maybe.
Roscosmos to wait for ISS partners’ response until end of March – chief, TASS
“Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said he would wait until the end of March for the response from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency to his demand to lift sanctions against Russian enterprises. “We will wait until the end of March. The lack of response or a negative response would be a basis for our decision,” he said, without specifying what kind of decision it would be. According to the official, the space corporation was not going to yield to the sanctions.”
‘That’s just Dmitry’: Nasa plays down threat to ISS amid Ukraine war, The Guardian
“The Nasa administrator, Bill Nelson, has played down hostile comments by the head of the Russian space agency, after Russia said it would stop supplying rocket engines to US companies. “That’s just Dmitry Rogozin,” Nelson told the Associated Press. “He spouts off every now and then. But at the end of the day, he’s worked with us.”The other people that work in the Russian civilian space program, they’re professional. They don’t miss a beat with us, American astronauts and American mission control.”
Head of Russian Space Program Says ISS Cosmonauts “in a Fighting Mood”, Futurism
“Dmitry Rogozin, the outspoken head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, expressed his excitement today for delivering the next crew of cosmonauts to the International Space Station. But his choice of words was peculiar, to say the least. “The State Commission at Baikonur approved the main and backup crews of the Soyuz MS-21 manned spacecraft,” Rogozin tweeted in Russian. “The boys are in a fighting mood.”
Rogozin:
Don’t let the hatch hit you on the ass, as Russia departs the ISS. Free people don’t need or want you involved in ANY cooperative or peaceful endeavors.
The world is far better off without you, and Putin.
You are both vermin which need to suffer the same extermination as the children and civilians in Ukraine have by Russia.
I have hope the Russian people will wake up, overthrow its government, Putin and anyone who supported the crimes against humanity Russia had committed are tried, found guilty, and hung by the neck in the Central Park of Mariupol until dead.
Bill Nelson:
Grow a pair, and tell the Russians to leave the ISS. Please.
It cannot happen soon enough.
I 100% promise you his “texts/statements” are written by the FSB.
At this point, I pretty much don’t care what Mr. Rogozin says. On his best days, his comments are on par with or worse than Mr. Musk’s most extreme tweets (which I also ignore.) Mr. Rogizin is in charge of an essentially failed space agency. He has already destroyed any possibility of non-Russian spacecraft launch on Russian launch vehicles and basically ended all scientific collaborations with other nations. His only policy options are to continue ISS operations until 2030 or force the US (and ESA, Canada and Japan) to end ISS operations at an earlier date. Since ISS has served its purpose, an earlier end date does not strike me as a big deal. That means Mr. Rogozin is nothing more than an obnoxious nobody, with no power to do anything of real significance. His opinions are about as important as those of the head of Fiji’s space program (I assume Fiji has one, and with no disrespect to Fiji.)
I agree with this entirely. And it should be earlier, and if not that, see as to if PPE+HALO for Gateway can be repurposed for the ISS. It is after all, the Russian segment that is aging far worse than the International-US segment. Cut the Russians loose, if the funding is there, it could serve well past 2030.
PPE has some big solar arrays. I’m not sure how they could be accommodated on ISS. And simply cutting the Russian Orbital Segment free isn’t trivial. It would be technically difficult since some of the modules are more or less at the center of ISS, and legally difficult since the Russians might not cooperate and the Outer Space Treaty prohibits interfering with another nation’s activities in space.
Likely if we added any new module to ISS it would have to be one without solar panels – the ISS solar panels will suffice for a long time. We would not get rid of the Zarya (FGB) since we nominally own that, but the Zvezda might be able to be detached and jettisoned. We probably do NOT need another ISS module.
I have it on good authority that the ISS Interim Control Module is still in flight-ready storage at NRL.
And I have heard that it is not.
Keith, any idea what level of effort it would take to get it ready to go, and could Falcon 9 / Falcon Heavy take it to the ISS?
If this module is like the other US modules, a Falcon 9 can’t get it to ISS. A Falcon could certainly get a module that size to orbit, but Falcon second stage can’t do things like the fine maneuvering to approach and berth it to ISS. The Russian modules were designed with independent capabilities to do things like that, but the US modules saved mass by doing without and relying on the Shuttle to provide those functions.
I guess I’m brainstorming here, but could a Dragon act as the fine maneuvering vehicle when/if docked to the ICM, for ISS rendezvous and docking?
Perhaps a launch of the ICM on an F9, and a second F9 launch with a minimum crewed Dragon. Dragon rendezvous with ICM, Dragon/ICM rendezvous with ISS, Dragon sep from ICM after Canada Arm capture, ICM robotically docked with ISS, Dragon docking at open docking port on ISS.
I am sure my suggestion is made without understanding of Delta V requirements, payload vibration studies, and other limitations I am not familiar with. However. I like a good “what if” exercise. Sometimes, such an exercise can reveal solution opportunities which have been overlooked.
The specifics of my suggestion could also give the US a superior win over authoritarian and despotic regimes like Russia now brings to the table.
Sending up a module (and I’m not sure if ICM is flightworthy) on its own isn’t viable. It might take a day or so for a Dragon to match orbits and dock with it. So the module would need its own power, attitude control, communications etc. Those are things which US modules for ISS don’t have.
You might send up a Cargo Dragon 2 and a module together on a Falcon Heavy. That would take some significant changes to the launch dynamics, probably coming up with some sort of fairing over the module (between the Dragon on the top and the second stage interface, I guess), and some changes to the Dragon’s attitude control software. That wouldn’t be easy, but I suppose it’s possible. And, if someone has a US ISS module in the closet, I suspect it would be the easiest way to get the module to ISS.
All the more reason using PPE+HALO is the play over the ICM. Don’t put solar arrays on PPE (have it use the station’s once connected). Rely on chemical propulsion and RCS system. Get it near the station like Cygnus (that HALO is a derivative of), and grab it with the arm.
It would allow us to extend the station past 2030 given that it’s the Russian segment aging badly, not the Western segment, And we can always build another PPE+HALO for Lunar Gateway. They aren’t exactly expensive.
Falcon second stage has some sort of guidance / attitude control; why couldn’t the second stage provide attitude control, and some sort of “service module bus” arrangement be cobbled together, then attached to ICM? I realize all of this is brainstorming, but surely there is enough hardware in all the different commercial and government facilities which could contribute to what I propose, and keep the ICM “alive” until Dragon can rendezvous, dock, and take over attitude control for ISS intercept and capture. My attitude is a “why not” approach to success. Pulling off a feat like this could really play well into the soft power which NASA and the US is supposed to be using to influence the world to better behavior.
Are you able to elaborate? Could be a good story!
According to the folks in the industry on the NSF forum. There not much point in sending something up that is almost as old as the Zayra module with lots of obsolete components.
The response of the ISS partners should be to quote the Ukrainian troops: “Russian Warship, Go **** yourself”.
Here is the terrible truth: isolating space exploration from the destruction of US-Russian relations is really self serving for space-oriented people and agencies. It abandons morality in the name of some “we’re all in this together” pillow talk. It must stop.
Those Russian Cosmonauts on the ISS right now are all military officers. The current Commander of the ISS, Cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, is a member of the VKS. Had he not joined the Russian Space program, he, along with his fellow Cosmonaut colleagues, would be active participants in this genocidal war, which according to Western Estimates, is consuming 95% of the Russian Military’s resources. Perhaps they’d be doing bombing runs themselves.
And here’s another thing that will happen: one day, probably 5 years from now, there will be Cosmonauts who were active participants in the War in Ukraine. Should NASA Astronauts of 2028 shake the hands of the butchers of children upon emerging from their Soyuz flight up? Shall they make small talk over how many civilian targets that future cosmonaut bombed?
Under no circumstance should we or our people in space be associating with any kind of ambassadors of the Kingdom of Putin, least of all its military officers.
We need to plan to detach the Russian segment from the ISS, cut off our partnership, and replace it with the PPE+HALO meant for Gateway or something. Anything is more morally acceptable than dealing with the war criminal Vladimir Putin’s toads one day longer than we have to.
It’s Kobaiashi Maru for Mr. Rogozin.
His instincts say to be more and more aggressive, canceling programs and services like ISS and Oneweb.
Hardly any cent comming from western governments and commercial customers on the foreseeable future.
Economic crisis looming in Russia, will there be money for Angara, Soyuz 2, Oriol, Venera, Lunar base?
Will China and India rescue Russian space infrastucture? They both already bought a lot of russian tech, now they have an opportunity to buy some russian space assets for cheap, consolidate their own programs, eliminate Russian as a serious competitor, turning Roskosmos on just a bigger Ucrainian Space Agency, ironically.
Could not happen to a nicer bunch of a-holes.
Let’s speak the truth about Russia’s industrial base: they cannot build new things. It’s a terrible mix of corruption, history, industrial decline, politics and geography. It is largely incapable of major new engineering programs.
Russia says they’re going to build an entire new army of Armata tanks. They then indefinitely delay purchasing it in large numbers and just order more modernized T72s.
Russia says they’re going to build a modern stealth fighter to comate with the F-22. They test and fly the PAK FA Su-57, only to decided to buy dozens more modernized (sort of) Su-27s, under the name Su-35.
Russia says they’re going to build a new bomber, the PAK DA. A flying wing. A Russian B-2. What do they do instead? Order 11 more Soviet-era Tu-160s, a dated design.
Russia says it is going to modernize its space launch capabilities with Angara. Basically a Russian Atlas V (kind of), they show off all sorts of variants with a “Universal Rocket Module” (their Common Booster Core) strapped together and grand ambitions for it. And then the 2010s tick by. Angara has flown 4 times in 25 years of development. Instead Russia spends money modernizing the Soyuz-U and Soyuz-FG into the Soyuz-2.
This is how Russia works. The Soviet Union did not work like this. The Soviet Union, for all it’s massive problems, had many
capable and successful engineering and industrial programs. Maybe the difference is that ideology and Western competition provided motivation for the USSR while the corruption of modern Russia does the opposite. Because all Modern Russia does in all these domains is live off its Soviet inheritance. As we’re seeing in Ukraine, that runs up against some real limits versus modern technology.
Even before the invasion of Ukraine, Russia had two futures post-ISS since they aren’t joining the Artemis Accords (and never should have even before this). One future would be it would launch a Soyuz into LEO a few times a years to show the flag. It would be a return to the 1960s. Another is that they somehow launch to the Chinese Space Station, which they can’t presently do because of the orbital inclination of it.
Russia will never build a new space capsule or a space station, or a lunar base or anything else. They will keep producing computer generated art, and Rogozin and his successors will keep thumping their chest, living off past glories. But the rot at the heart of the Russian system of government has ended any kind of chance of them being more than a token player in space.
As in years ago when Russia was struggling with Vostochny Cosmodrome and various upsets like the rhinestone covered luxury car, I was thinking if Putin and his cohorts spend money on their space program instead of mansions and yachts, they would have a formidable space program.
The Vostochny project tells you all that you need to know; about Russia’s “priorities and abilities” to bring new programs to fruition.
The fish rots from the head, as supposedly Russian soldiers say.
By the way, kudos to Scott Kelly.
https://twitter.com/Station…
Rogozin reminds me of nitwits that take over board of directors of companies, non-profit associations, clubs, etc. and drive them into the ground.
Rogozin and the people above him are really good at shooting themselves in their feet. Their canceling of the One Web launch could not have gone more wrong for them. Now One Web will be launching with SpaceX.
Roscosmos is going to end up with no commercial business at all, so even less money will be coming their way.
I’m guessing that 3/31 is the time when Rogozin is expected to present his ‘counter sanctions’ proposal to Putin. So, at that point, he has to think of something to do that would not be a suicide pill for his ministry.
Is this what NASA does to support Ukraine?
https://futurism.com/astron…
With respect to the audience, and the NASA employees who AGREE that Russian involvement in the ISS should be immediately terminated:
The remainder of NASA employees are weaklings and enablers, and should resign your jobs at NASA. Move onto work and careers, where being a “yes” man or woman is a requirement for employment.
If you support the NASA party line of “don’t criticize the Russians while they commit genocide and extermination of a people and a country”, your participation is an indirect enabling of the immoral destruction of Ukraine. If I have to guess, I bet there are daily internal memos circulating within NASA instructing all employees to say nothing about the Ukrainian war, and demands which are growing from the US taxpayers, to separate the Russian section from the ISS.
One last point: those NASA minions who read this opinion, and give an observation that “I don’t get the big picture”, how about putting your blood and treasure where I am, buy a plane ticket to Poland or Romania, and do your part in some way, shape, or form to help defeat Putin.
…*Crickets*…
It’s March 31st, anything happened? Not even a tweet?
https://www.newsweek.com/ru…
Adios, Rogozin: people of your ilk will not be missed: https://uploads.disquscdn.c…