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Russia added a module that had been sitting around for 13 years and was only finally launched because warranties on some parts would've begun expiring. Then the

Russia added a module that had been sitting around for 13 years and was only finally launched because warranties on some parts would've begun expiring. Then the first thing that module did was flip the station. While yes, they have a history of doing better than the US on space stations, the point is that their space industry is a shadow of what it used to be. This can be seen from how many next generation rockets, rocket engines and crewed vehicles they've announced over the years which have never really ended up amounting to much. For instance, the timeline on Orel makes Orion seem like a speedy development. Finally, while the US did make that mistake at first, they've very obviously more than recovered that knowledge considering how many different engines, launch vehicles, spacecraft etc are in actual (as in having working hardware to show and not just mockups and promises) development by several different American companies. Plus, much of the former Soviet space program can be attributed just as much to Ukraine, where a lot of the R&D happened ;)

vGPU 3y ago
Indeed. Though Rogozin was a net benefit to Roscosmos over the past decade, as can be seen by their current launch record, with 100 successful launches in a row over the past few years. However, he is definitely not a Musk type visionary. From what I know of him, he's a "fixer", that was sent in to clean up the ridiculous amounts of waste and corruption in the system. Under Borisov's management there are rumors that they are building a new satellite factory that should be starting production soon. And realistically, let's not forget that the US has always significantly lagged Russia in this field. If it wasn't for Operation Paperclip they would not have been competitive at all. >Ukraine Let's be honest here: Ukraine has existed as a state for less than 40 years in it's entire history. The geographic location of current Ukraine has nothing to do with the accomplishments of the former USSR. This is evidenced by the complete and utter lack of any accomplishment in the field by Ukraine after the collapse of the USSR. Side note: Gotta love this tweet threatening Musk for praising the Russian space program: https://twitter.com/KristiTalmadge/status/1103751764409495556?s=20 https://twitter.com/KristiTalmadge/status/110375176440949555...

vGPU 3y ago

Indeed. Though Rogozin was a net benefit to Roscosmos over the past decade, as can be seen by their current launch record, with 100 successful launches in a row over the past few years. However, he is definitely not a Musk type visionary. From what I know of him, he's a "fixer", that was sent in to clean up the ridiculous amounts of waste and corruption in the system. Under Borisov's management there are rumors that they are building a new satellite factory that should be starting production soon. And realistically, let's not forget that the US has always significantly lagged Russia in this field. If it wasn't for Operation Paperclip they would not have been competitive at all. >Ukraine Let's be honest here: Ukraine has existed as a state for less than 40 years in it's entire history. The geographic location of current Ukraine has nothing to do with the accomplishments of the former USSR. This is evidenced by the complete and utter lack of any accomplishment in the field by Ukraine after the collapse of the USSR. Side note: Gotta love this tweet threatening Musk for praising the Russian space program: https://twitter.com/KristiTalmadge/status/1103751764409495556?s=20 https://twitter.com/KristiTalmadge/status/110375176440949555...