Russia to Ban U.S. From International Space Station?- Oh god...

[9009pc]

mornelithe said:

Adameh said:
It wouldn't be very international then but why exactly would the US rely on another country to go to space

Because the United States is currently suffering from a wave of anti-science, anti-intellectualism.  Cutting the miniscule budget of NASA, without considering the vast, vast amount of technology that has emerged from the Space program.  Here, Tyson lays out the situation better (see below).  The other issue is that the US really didn't evolve with the technology as near earth orbit space flight became less of a daunting task.  This should've been moved to the private sector awhile ago, but the Government failed to make it an attractive option quickly enough, once they showed it was doable.

 

at bolded i think elon musk's almost instant response to dimitri rogozins joke about a trampline indicates that the U.S did move to the private sector well before it was necessary.  the dragon mk2 should be flying astronauats to the iss by 2017. that is  3 years before russia will stop letting the U.S use their rockets.
http://www.spacex.com/news/2014/05/30/dragon-v2-spacexs-next-generation-manned-spacecraft