The United States’ decision to privatize transport its astronauts to the International Space Station (EEI), until now in the hands of the Russian Soyuz puts end to an uncomfortable dependence Washington in the current context of tensions with the Kremlin by the crisis in Ukraine.
The space collaboration, at the beginning of the conflict seemed the only glimmer of understanding between Washington and Moscow, has not escaped the growing unrest between the two Governments . First was the announcement by NASA in April by which suspended all interaction with the Kremlin except the ISS in response to the Russian intervention in the Crimea.
Russian primacy since 2011
A month later was Moscow, subject to European and American sanctions , which dealt a major setback to the close collaboration of the two space powers after the Cold War with his decision not to prolong life ISS beyond 2020, the committed date with NASA and the European Space Agency.
When he made that announcement, the Russian deputy minister for Space and Defence, Dmitri Rogozin , recalled that the Russian spacecraft Soyuz are the only link between the Earth and the orbital platform.
Russia has primacy on the ISS since 2011, when NASA ended their flights transbordadore s. This dependence has been unpopular with the administration of Barack Obama, who believes that a nation like the United States can not require third parties to send their astronauts into space.
So Tuesday the American government decided to reclaim the job for two private companies in the country, Boeing and SpaceX, which from 2017 made new releases from national soil, in the traditional Cape Canaveral center (Florida).
70 million per astronaut
So far the United States paid $ 70 million to Moscow for the transfer of each one of its astronauts to the ISS on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
“The choice here is between fully fund the plan to return to the United States space takeoffs or continue sending millions of dollars to the Russians.’s That simple. Administration Obama chooses to invest in the United UK s hope that Congress will do the same, “said NASA in April after announcing that froze cooperation with Moscow unless the ISS.
The space cooperation of the United States and Russia had remained until April stranger to the ups and downs in bilateral diplomatic relations. In fact, after the onset of the crisis in Ukraine, the director of NASA, Charles Bolden , noted that relations were not interrupted.
“Right now, everything is normal in our relationship with Russia ,” said Bolden on 4 March, after remembering that cooperation was suspended either by previous conflicts, as the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008.
Coupling Apollo and Soyuz-18-19
more than fifteen years ago, November 20, 1998 , put into orbit the first ISS module as an example of rapprochement between the superpowers.
USA. and Russia had begun his career in a spatial context of military competition for global supremacy in the 1950s and was not until 1975 when they took a decisive step towards cooperation with the flight of Apollo coupling 18 (USA) and the Soyuz-19 (USSR).
In the Cold War, was the first joint project collaboration. In 1984, then-President Ronald Reagan proposed bringing the Western powers to build a permanent space station.
“I do not think it’s an insignificant fact that we are starting to see a number of people with the idea that the International Space Station is nominated for Nobel Peace Prize.’s Not trivial , “said the manager of NASA in April.
However, the crisis in Ukraine has undermined the hitherto copy space collaboration between the United States and Moscow and threatens to become a turning point after decades in which the space had remained almost completely oblivious to the conflict on Earth.
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