Russia will not deliver US astronauts to space after 2018

[Legend]

TASS: Science & Space - Russia has no plans to deliver US astronauts to ISS after 2018 — official

Wow this is huge news. Good for SpaceX and Boing I guess, but shocking for the bigger picture. Not really sure what to make of it.

[Raven]

TASS: Science & Space - Russia has no plans to deliver US astronauts to ISS after 2018 — official

Wow this is huge news. Good for SpaceX and Boing I guess, but shocking for the bigger picture. Not really sure what to make of it.

Russia's economy is falling apart. They can't afford much of their own space program anymore. US private companies will do it better, more efficiently, and without any political drama.

[Legend]

Russia's economy is falling apart. They can't afford much of their own space program anymore. US private companies will do it better, more efficiently, and without any political drama.

They'll still be sending their own astronauts to space. Roscosmos isn't falling apart.

[Raven]

They'll still be sending their own astronauts to space. Roscosmos isn't falling apart.

It's falling behind. Badly. If the Russian economy continues to tank, which it likely will, you'll see a lot less of them in space than you do already. Plus, without cashflow from taking other countries into space thanks to competition from American and soon European entrepreneurs, it'll become increasingly difficult for them to justify the cost to send up a token cosmonaut.

[DD_Bwest]

i guess this just means that dragon 2 and the starliner will Have to be ready by then.   still an interesting turn of events because i thought they liked collecting the coin on those taxi rides up

[Legend]

i guess this just means that dragon 2 and the starliner will Have to be ready by then.   still an interesting turn of events because i thought they liked collecting the coin on those taxi rides up

Yeah US companies would have stolen some business, but the plan was to still send up a few on Soyuz for years to come. Plus I wonder what European astronauts will do. They can always use US companies, but it'd be odd if Russia forced them to use US companies.

[DD_Bwest]

Yeah US companies would have stolen some business, but the plan was to still send up a few on Soyuz for years to come. Plus I wonder what European astronauts will do. They can always use US companies, but it'd be odd if Russia forced them to use US companies.

yea that would be odd,  good for spacex, but odd in general.   maybe well get new news about some kinda change in russia that will have this make more sense.

[Raven]

i guess this just means that dragon 2 and the starliner will Have to be ready by then.   still an interesting turn of events because i thought they liked collecting the coin on those taxi rides up

Politics, sir. Russia has sanctions on it right now thanks to that plane they shot down in Ukraine, another American missile defense system is about to go online in Europe, and Russia is expected to abandon the INF Treaty later this year since the US found out and called them out almost two years ago that they breached the agreement by developing missiles the treaty forbade. Which Russia argued they "need for the current situation in Asia". This is just a little slap back, especially considering they know companies like SpaceX are getting ready to eat their lunch for manned spaceflight in a few years anyways. Do not be surprised to see Russia become entirely irrelevant on the global scene in pretty much every way 20 to 30 years from now. Hell, depending on how stupid they get, it could come even sooner.