The US is resuming crewed space travel with American spacecraft after nearly a decade of relying on Russian aid to reach the ISS. The era of space cooperation between Moscow and Washington may be reaching its end.
The US aeronautics and space agency NASA has not developed any spacecraft of its own since the last space shuttle flight, in July 2011. In principle, this approach hasn’t changed, as the Crew Dragon spacecraft was produced by SpaceX, the private company founded by Tesla chief Elon Musk. The company retains ownership of the spacecraft.
Aerospace giant Boeing also wants to undertake unmanned spaceflight before the end of the year, using its Starliner spacecraft. It aims for manned flights in 2021.
These developments do more than mark the return of the US into the elite club of nations that can transport people into outer space, which currently includes Russia and China; if the US also succeeds in developing two different spacecraft able to perform such a feat, it would take the lead in an unofficial race, and Russia would have to face a new competitor.
Reliable launches, increased ticket prices
Yet Russia and the US have not exclusively seen one another as space rivals. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, cooperation between the two nations on crewed space flights boomed. US space shuttles flew to the Russian space station Mir, and their crews also included Russian cosmonauts.
After the turn of the millennium, Russian spacecraft with US astronauts onboard regularly took off from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan to go to the ISS. Russia only gained the monopoly on space travel following the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003, in which the American shuttle broke up minutes before it was to land in Florida, killing all seven crew members. The US consequently suspended its space flights for two years.
Even after that, Moscow had to act as space travel “taxi” for quite a while. “Russia couldn’t say no,” Igor Marinin, a member of the Russian space travel academy, told DW. It was impossible to keep the ISS operational without the Americans, Marinin added, also because “the Russian module could not travel through space autonomously.”
The International Space Station (ISS)
Over the last nine years, there have been some 40 successful launches of Russian Soyuz spacecraft with US astronauts on board, four times per year on average. This had stretched the Russian industry to its limits, said Marinin.
It also hasn’t always been smooth sailing between NASA and Russian space agency Roscosmosan, as an incident in summer 2018 revealed. A Soyuz capsule docked to the ISS experienced a drop in pressure, and a hole was subseqeuntly found and sealed. Roscosmos publically suggested the hole was an act of sabotage and ordered an investigation, while Russian media circulated rumors that the Russian space agency was pointing its fingers at US astronauts as the source of the leak — allegations which the Americans rejected. NASA later said it would support the Roscosmos investigation.
Another very rare incident happened in October 2018 when a booster on the Soyuz rocket malfunctioned just after liftoff. An emergency system kicked in and saved the lives of the Russian cosmonaut and the American astronaut who were onboard. In Russia, the incident was viewed as proof that the technology was reliable, if oudated. “The system has proved that it’s robust,” said German astronaut Thomas Reiter, who had at one time traveled onboard Soyuz spacecraft.
A Soyuz capsule can carry up to three people and over time, Roscosmos has upped the price of a flight. According to US sources, a trip to the ISS and back used to be available for $21 million (€18.9 million). Recently, Roscosmos demanded $80 million (€72.1 million). Currently, the Russians and Americans have agreed to only one more flight. It will take place in autumn 2020, with a price tag of $90 million (€81.1 million).
ISS: An island of cooperation
The political chill between Moscow and Washington, triggered by Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, affected every aspect of the bilateral relationship — except the cooperation related to the ISS program. Just once, in spring 2014, the then-deputy prime minister and current head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, warned the US that astronaut transport to the ISS could be terminated.
However, that threat is a thing of the past. In a recent live video chat with the ISS crew, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the “effictive partnership” between Russia and the US.
“There is a complete accordance with the Americans,” Marinin confirmed, while adding that this was true only with respect to crewed space travel, and not with regard to commercial and military use of outer space.
Competition related to commercial missions has increased. For example, SpaceX has put Russia under considerable pressure in the area of satellite launches. In addition, Both Russia and the US are advancing military technology for outer space.
Astronauts Bob Behnken (l) and Doug Hurley (r) will fly on the Crew Dragon to the ISS
With the exception of manned flights, Russian space travel has long been in a weaker position than American space travel. The Russian monopoly made it possible to hide that fact, space travel expert Andrei Ionin told DW.
“The final curtain that had hidden the loss of motivation and backward technology is now being lifted,” Ionin said. “The government will realize that the emperor has no clothes.” The expert estimates that Russia will fall behind rather quickly, primarily in comparison to SpaceX.Ionin also hopes this new competition will force the Russian government to take advantage of exisiting possibilities to reform Roscosmos.
Who will occupy the US seats in ‘Soyuz’ spacecraft?
In the wake of the Crew Dragon flight, the US will likely reduce its cooperation with Russia in the area of manned space travel. According to Marinin, the new US capsules offer space for twice as many passengers, and they are more modern and more comfortable than their Russian counterparts, whose construction is still based on technical solutions from the 1960s.
But Marinin believes the Soyuz spacecraft have one advantage that could last a few years still: their dependability, which has proved over decades.
ISS operations are guaranteed to continue until 2024. Until then, NASA will increasingly cease to depend on Russia’s help to send astronauts into outer space. This would in turn open up capacities for Europeans and space tourists. Russia has already announced that it will resume the transport of private persons into outer space in 2021. Marinin also expects additional capacities will be dedicated to the development of the new Oryol (“Eagle”) spaceship, whose maiden flight is scheduled for 2023.
A step backwards in space research?
Overall, the era of Moscow and Washington’s close cooperation on space research seems to be coming to an end. The US intends to travel to the moon again — an aim also shared by Russia. Moscow also plans to build its own space station to replace the ISS.
Ionin warned that the biggest achievement of the ISS program could be lost: the “invaluable experience of cooperation.” A return to nations going it alone in outer space would be a step backwards, he said — back to the space race of the 1960s.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
