WELCOME

But Russia's own recent actions are hardly a cause for

April 4, 2019 by Lena Webb

But Russia's own recent actions are hardly a cause for concern. Despite a growing military buildup in space, Russia remains an adversary in the international community, as evidenced by its continued aggressive behavior in the space race. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been a key backer of the space race, and his government has made efforts to build and maintain a joint space station.

So it seems that as Russia seeks to develop military capabilities in space, its president has made a decision to use its space assets to advance American interests.

That decision may not be completely altruistic, but it is a reasonable one. In his first trip to space, Russia launched a Soyuz spacecraft last year, carrying a crew of 20. That's roughly the same size as the United Kingdom's Orion, and it's also significantly smaller than the size of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosneft, which is still in its early stages. The ISS crew was designed to carry humans to the station as a way of sending back the astronauts.

The decision to put the crew on a Soyuz spacecraft and an upgraded version of their Soyuz mission at the same time would give Russia's space industry a significant boost, and would allow it to pursue other advanced research and development (R&D) into the space station.

Russia's decision to pursue a joint space station, however, is one that could be exploited by the United States. The Russians already have a commercial station on the International Space Station, in fact. On Tuesday, Russia signed an agreement with NASA to build a joint space station.

But there's another possibility, one that makes sense: the United States. The United States is building the first U.S.-built rocket to orbit the ISS, and has been working on a joint space station since 2009. That means the United States could, in effect, build a joint space station with Russia. The U.S. has long been wary of the Russian space program, which has been heavily involved in sending astronauts to and from the station, and that also may pose a conflict with Russia's own efforts to build a joint space station.

Given the recent military buildup in space, the United States' decision to build a joint space station certainly sounds like a possibility. But even if it's not, at least the United States' own plan to build a joint space station looks like a worthwhile investment. And given the current international space politics and the increasing threat of an impending Russian-American war, and with the need to expand U.S. military involvement