Russia plans to launch own space station after quitting ISS

> They plan to go to the Moon, to the Mars etc. The were planning planning and planning all the time.

To be fair, I also plan to go to the gym, so I understand their struggle.

This article got more hilarious the father along I got.

"if putin decides"

"not permanently crewed"

"artificial intelligence and robots" buzzword compliant!

"Russia planned to spend up to $6 billion"

hahahaha, NASA spends 4 billion PER YEAR, to keep the current station running. While i'm sure there's some waste there I don't think it's reasonable to design build launch and run a new station with anywhere near the scale of the ISS for anywhere near $6 billion.

I think their actual plan is that China builds a new space station [0], and Russia becomes a partner with China in that, but China will provide the majority of the funding and do the majority of the work. Basically Putin wants to partner with China instead of the US, because China-Russia relations are much better than US-Russia relations.

Actually though I think ISS puts a limit on US ability to exclude Russia. US can't exclude Russia from space cooperation like it has done with China as long as ISS continues. If Russia quits ISS and teams up with China instead, US may start treating Russia similarly to how it treats China now.

[0] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-56342311

compatible with Buran https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClpzVNhxkZQ