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Comment by dangle1 | Hacker News Reader

Such a sad, destructive act from a country facing the upcoming insignificance of its space program as China has shown disinterest in partnering with them in space and SpaceX has freed NASA from paying dearly for US astronauts to fly on Soyuz to the ISS.

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Things that are dying and becoming irrelevant often have violent fits as the end draws near.

I hope for myself to walk with eyes wide open into my end with courage and peace.

I feel confident for several reasons that nobody will ever say I went out like the Russian space program

Maybe noone will say that but I could see a band called "The Russian Space Program" similar to Led Zeppelin name origins....

rage, rage against the dying of the light.

> band called "The Russian Space Program"

Make me think of band called "British Sea Power". Sadly they have now changed the name to "Sea Power" to avoid being associated with isolationist nationalists who don't appreciate the joke.

We could freeze your body and launch it at a satellite?

ISS is nearing end of design lifespan, and Russian spacelaunch is no longer competitive in cargo or human flight. Could call it a calculated move that Russia isn't all that interested in space anymore, and a way for them to express unhappiness with NATO expansion to Russian border states that isn't something as directly escalatory as airstrikes on American military assets.

Concurrent with threatening moves at Ukraine's border:

https://www.euronews.com/2021/11/15/tension-builds-up-on-ukr...

> China has shown disinterest in partnering with them in space

https://www.space.com/china-russia-international-lunar-resea...

Yeah, maybe ambivalence is a better description. I was alluding specifically to the fact that the Chinese space station is being constructed at an orbital inclination that Russia can't easily launch to:

https://www.space.com/russia-cosmonauts-may-visit-china-spac...

Or perhaps it does represent China telling Russia that they will control them in space rather than partner with them.

https://twitter.com/russianspaceweb/status/13877439152777912...

Russia anti-West pro-China attitude is so totally clearly against their self interest. China is clearly gone demand back the part of China Russia invaded when China was weak. Russia will in every way become depended on China. While in Europe, Russia could be a major player.

But of course the leaders of Russia main interest is survival and China is much more likely to accept a strong man dictator for the long term.

Does civilian space program and the ASAT capability live in the same organization in Russia? Seems like those are two quite different things, and I'm not sure the obsolescence of Soyuz bothers strategic weapon operators so much.

No surprise that they are pissed their decade+ long monopoly in manned launches came to an abrupt end.

the final official act is always to loot the treasury.

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