While I sympathize with owners of satellites and satellite components, all the arguments for not standing up to Putin are economic. The reason British, French and Germans are not imposing much stricter sanctions on Russia are due to the economic pain it was cause them, and the pain it would particularly cause the influential wealthy among them. All of Putin’s actions to this date are based on the calculation that the West simply doesn’t have the will to make any sacrifice to stop an autocrat doing as he pleases.
Yes, it is OK to stand up to dictators, except when it hurts YOUR bank account.
Problem is that this reluctance always leads to them getting bolder and then the war that becomes necessary really hurts you bank account.
If President Obama was really a bold and visionary leader, which he isn’t, he would withdraw the U.S. from the ISS in protest and argue/bribe ESA, Japan and Brazil to follow. The economic hit to Russia would be major, not only lost of revenue but a need to take over all funding for the former ISS, while the billions saved by NASA could be used to fund a real commercial alternative, leasing space on a BA habit operated by a BA mission control with Dragon providing frequent taxi rides to it on a per seat basis with the other seats going to true commercial riders with no connection to NASA.
But it would inconvenience the New Space Contractors to make such a radical shift while space advocates are too hung up on NASA to see the financial advantage of getting rid the ISS. Beside, what would NASA do without any need for a massive and expensive mission control to micromanage the astronauts it sends into space? Or the ability to control the spacecraft they are on?
Hope that the situation in Ukraine will be resolved quickly
Discredits everything else. Hope is not a policy. Anyone not noticing that Putin is playing the long game is not paying attention. They play chess in Russia. They play go in China. This has meaning beyond the obvious.
As for space this seems to be the best possible situation. It needs a good shaking. After another decade of accomplishment (which shouldn’t take more than a few centuries!) space itself will overturn the institutional ignorance (embodied in the ‘how can SpaceX do that’ crowd) and some will again be free to pursue dreams. Not me, but some.
Exactly, this has probably been Mr. Putin’s vision for decades, ever since he resigned from the KGB after their fail coup in the early 1990’s. That is why you need to hit them hard now, in the pocket book, where it hurts, before they use the profits they are getting from selling to the West, including NASA, to rebuild their war machine.
In the USA we play, football, basketball, hockey, baseball, racquetball, squash, tennis, soccer, ping pong, beer pong, pool, darts, horseshoes, bocce, curling, lacross, chess, checkers, poker, dodgeball, magic the gathering, and on and on. Americans, in general, are both competitive and strategic and this comes out in many venues.
Obama plays candyland, the race card, and a broken record player.
He’s certainly never played Risk.
Risk is a very communist game. you can’t win but you can keep others from winning.
I’ve won many games of risk, you moron.
Risk is so lopsided it’s impossible for someone not to win. Would you like to join a poker game dn-guy?
As a side note it looks like this bandit in Nigeria appears to have declared war on the U.S., or at least M. Lincoln. I guess news travels slowly in that part of the world.
[[[In a new clip released online, the leader of the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram declares war on the West, denouncing a number of world leaders, as well as Abraham Lincoln. ]]]
If this continues, the first corrective action many satellite buyers and manufacturers will do is avoid buying any US parts if at all possible. That would punish US space companies at least as much as Russia. It may not be practical or possible to replace US parts in existing satellites waiting for launch.
The US government does seem to have been trying hard lately to convince the rest of the world not to use US tech. Are the tech companies not donating enough to the Democrats?
While I sympathize with owners of satellites and satellite components, all the arguments for not standing up to Putin are economic. The reason British, French and Germans are not imposing much stricter sanctions on Russia are due to the economic pain it was cause them, and the pain it would particularly cause the influential wealthy among them. All of Putin’s actions to this date are based on the calculation that the West simply doesn’t have the will to make any sacrifice to stop an autocrat doing as he pleases.
Yes, it is OK to stand up to dictators, except when it hurts YOUR bank account.
Problem is that this reluctance always leads to them getting bolder and then the war that becomes necessary really hurts you bank account.
If President Obama was really a bold and visionary leader, which he isn’t, he would withdraw the U.S. from the ISS in protest and argue/bribe ESA, Japan and Brazil to follow. The economic hit to Russia would be major, not only lost of revenue but a need to take over all funding for the former ISS, while the billions saved by NASA could be used to fund a real commercial alternative, leasing space on a BA habit operated by a BA mission control with Dragon providing frequent taxi rides to it on a per seat basis with the other seats going to true commercial riders with no connection to NASA.
But it would inconvenience the New Space Contractors to make such a radical shift while space advocates are too hung up on NASA to see the financial advantage of getting rid the ISS. Beside, what would NASA do without any need for a massive and expensive mission control to micromanage the astronauts it sends into space? Or the ability to control the spacecraft they are on?
Hope that the situation in Ukraine will be resolved quickly
Discredits everything else. Hope is not a policy. Anyone not noticing that Putin is playing the long game is not paying attention. They play chess in Russia. They play go in China. This has meaning beyond the obvious.
As for space this seems to be the best possible situation. It needs a good shaking. After another decade of accomplishment (which shouldn’t take more than a few centuries!) space itself will overturn the institutional ignorance (embodied in the ‘how can SpaceX do that’ crowd) and some will again be free to pursue dreams. Not me, but some.
Exactly, this has probably been Mr. Putin’s vision for decades, ever since he resigned from the KGB after their fail coup in the early 1990’s. That is why you need to hit them hard now, in the pocket book, where it hurts, before they use the profits they are getting from selling to the West, including NASA, to rebuild their war machine.
In the USA we play, football, basketball, hockey, baseball, racquetball, squash, tennis, soccer, ping pong, beer pong, pool, darts, horseshoes, bocce, curling, lacross, chess, checkers, poker, dodgeball, magic the gathering, and on and on. Americans, in general, are both competitive and strategic and this comes out in many venues.
Obama plays candyland, the race card, and a broken record player.
He’s certainly never played Risk.
Risk is a very communist game. you can’t win but you can keep others from winning.
I’ve won many games of risk, you moron.
Risk is so lopsided it’s impossible for someone not to win. Would you like to join a poker game dn-guy?
As a side note it looks like this bandit in Nigeria appears to have declared war on the U.S., or at least M. Lincoln. I guess news travels slowly in that part of the world.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/06/boko-haram-video_n_5273563.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
[[[In a new clip released online, the leader of the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram declares war on the West, denouncing a number of world leaders, as well as Abraham Lincoln. ]]]
If this continues, the first corrective action many satellite buyers and manufacturers will do is avoid buying any US parts if at all possible. That would punish US space companies at least as much as Russia. It may not be practical or possible to replace US parts in existing satellites waiting for launch.
The US government does seem to have been trying hard lately to convince the rest of the world not to use US tech. Are the tech companies not donating enough to the Democrats?