Russian Moon Photos

I'm not all that impressed with the long Soviet stay times on Salyut and Mir.

Basically just boring holes through LEO. Day after day, month after month.

and the Clinton Admin. brought the Russians into the ISS project in order to give ex Soviet engineers and scientists something to do (though it was sold as a cost cutting move by the U.S., the United States actually PAID the Russians to work on it).

There is no doubt that the U.S. couldn't have completed the space station all on its own.

The Russians have never even sent an unmanned probe beyond Mars. The U.S. has sent six. All successfully.

Dude, without the Russians, there wouldn't BE anyone on the space station.

Not after Columbia.

In fact, without the Russians, the people on the Space Station would've been stuck up there and possibly dead.

I refuse to deny their contributions to space...they've gotten more bang for their buck than we have. And face facts...if you came into a few million dollars and wanted to go to space, you'd have to put on a Russian flight suit to do it right now.

I would say that if the Russians have it down to the point where they can take tourists, they're pretty far ahead in the game, dontcha think?

Yeah, sounds like national teamsports sour grapes that Russia chose badly when it picked from the ideology bowl.

The older I get, the less that stuff's a boogeyman to me, and the less I'm a pennant waver for what I'm supposed to define as my "team".

That's a strata that politicians, geopolitical strategists, and soldiers function on, doesn't really effect me, and likewise I assume not the everyday average Russian.

I mean, we all suffer or prosper under the consequences of that crap, but, y'know, the average person can't and shouldn't be a "political animal".
Just not how natural organic beings were made to live.
I'm done with it myself.

Sorry, off topic rant there I guess, but it's a bee in my bonnet when we try to discuss stuff like this, and someone invariably slags on the Russians cuz they can't let the stupid cold war die as if they fought it.

^ We've definitely not proven that more/bigger is better.

If the Russians had wanted to though I have no doubt that they could of pulled off robotic probes in the outer solar system. There is nothing in their technological abilitys which prevented it, just a focus elsewhere.

They have other feats which are still incredible to this day, such as photos from the surface of Venus.

As for not being impressed by long orbital stays, that's crazy...being able to demonstrate the ability to keep humans alive for long periods of time in space is crucial if we ever want to send people exploring.

Bah. Competition, not cooperation is the way great things are accomplished. If we hadn't been trying to beat the commies to the moon (and vice versa) we would've just fucked around in Earth orbit--much like we do now.