RIA Novosti
November 18, 2005
Will Russia and U.S. explore space together?
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Kislyakov.) Anatoly Perminov, head of Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos), and NASA Administrator Michael Griffin will meet in January 2006 to formalize the joint operation of the International Space Station (ISS), which is the only international manned space program today.
Common sense has prevailed over political ambitions this time, with the U.S. Congress amending the Iran Nonproliferation Act that expressly forbade NASA to pay Roskosmos in line with the ISS program. Now it seems that Moscow and Washington are reinstating long-forgotten aspects of their cooperation.
The administration of President George W. Bush advocates an entirely different cooperation concept compared to Bill Clinton's. One gets the impression that we have now traveled back to the time when John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson were also divided on U.S.-Soviet cooperation aspects.
Kennedy, who had every reason to believe that the United States could not win the Space Race against the Soviet Union, planned to build a "space bridge" between the two countries. He approached Moscow through the UN to implement a joint Moon mission.
Just like Kennedy, Johnson was very keen on space exploration. But, unlike his predecessor, he never made any official cooperation proposals to the Kremlin. When presenting NASA Medals of Distinction to the Apollo-8 crew, Johnson stated openly that America must become the world leader in this area at any cost. He therefore regarded space exploration in the context of rivalry, rather than partnership.
Moscow and Washington were unable to cooperate in this sphere because of the escalating Vietnam War. The United States bombed North Vietnam in support of Saigon, while the U.S.S.R. openly helped Hanoi, which at that time was the root of the Cold War.
Open confrontation is now history. Unfortunately, the Bush administration and NASA bosses do not openly support the ISS program, which had been proposed by President Clinton. They prefer to make vague statements instead. Just like 40 years ago, the United States plans a lunar mission in line with the Constellation program. This program emphasizes America's leading role in organizing long-term inter-planetary expeditions independently, without the involvement of any other country. And U.S. leaders are merely paying lip service to possible cooperation with Russia in this sphere.
NASA is becoming more and more skeptical about subsequent U.S. involvement in the ISS program, which is so far the only Russian-U.S. manned space mission. On November 17, Michael L. Coats, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center, told Space.com that NASA had to complete the ISS orbiter, if at all possible. Still it seems that NASA bureaucrats want to shelve this problem. Consequently, any breakthrough in our cooperation seems impossible today.