Several stories in the press have covered the gap in manned space flight capability when the Shuttle is retired. NASA was counting on Russian Soyuz flights. Now there is speculation that deteriorating relations with Russia could mean no access to those flights.
China has recently ramped up their manned space program. Their spacecraft is an improved version of the Soyuz design. How hard would it be to get a quick program coordinated so we could contract with the Chinese instead for the ISS?
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:30 pm
they launch every 4 years or so… so… no.
September 23rd, 2009 at 5:48 pm
No cuz china is lyk rlly evil so i woldnt truste tem, tey culd lyk sabotage it so i rlly dnt tink its a good ideia
September 26th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Russia is part of the group of countries that built the space station, China is not. It seems China would rather gain some pride by making progress into space by themselves so little interaction goes on between China and every other space agency in comparison to US and ESA interaction.
Hopefully US, Russian relations won’t deteriorate further but if they do maybe China will help out and improve US, China relations. That would be turning the proverbial lemons into lemonade. However I personally doubt astronauts and taikonauts will be flying togethor for awhile.
September 29th, 2009 at 8:55 am
No. China has only launched three manned space flights over a period of five years. In that time they have launched a total of six astronauts. None of those flights have been more than a few days in duration. They have yet to demonstrate and ability to rendezvous two craft in orbit. Until that occurs they will not be let anywhere near the ISS (assuming they even had a docking ring that fit the ISS).
Flights to the ISS are mainly for cargo and trained astronauts who are prepared for extended stays on the ISS. The Chinese have yet to demonstrate the ability to add anything to the ISS program. Currently they just do not have a very sophisticated manned space program. By the time they do develop these capabilities, the ISS itself will have outlived it’s usefulness.