This still doesn't quite gel for me, but call it progress!
I still have a problem with the concept of American astronauts flying around in Soyuz capsules - in a commanding capacity, no less. LOL! I guess that the ISS has really opened up relations between the two old superpowers to a new level. Given that the shuttle program is ending I guess we'll see more of it until Orion is ready to roll.
The Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft, carrying Expedition 18 Commander Michael Fincke, Flight Engineer Yury V. Lonchakov and American Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi, lands, Wednesday, April 8, 2009, near Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. Fincke and Lonchakov return after spending six months on the International Space Station, and Simonyi is returning from his launch with the Expedition 19 crew members 12 days earlier.
The International Space Station involves US, Russia, Japan, Canada and several European nations.
Maybe the scientific community is breaking down the political barriers.
Spreading the cost around is probably a big incentive.
I think China wants to get involved as well.
Regards, Rob
The International Space Station involves US, Russia, Japan, Canada and several European nations.
Yep - never in question.
The point was that Russia and USA were THE rivals. I grew up through the Cold War era and was born during the week that the Cuban Missile Crisis came to a head. This is the closest the world had or has yet come to all-out nuclear war.
I think we've come a looooooooooong way from 1962. You're right - if the Chinese come in it'll be hugs all around.
It's about time the Russians found a more dignified way of returning to Earth, than landing like a bag of turds on the end of a parachute in the middle of the Russian stepps.
It looks like the way of the future unless the shuttle gets a new lease of life
In another surprising example of superpower co-operation, the US Atlas V rocket (which has a family history going back to Cold War-era Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs)), uses a Russian-designed and built first-stage engine. As a result, a number of US military satellites have been launched using Russian technology! For more details, see the Wikipedia links below:
