[FPSPACE] Anatoly Perminov says US rebuffed Russian overtures to joint ex...

[agzak at optonline.net]

> It wasn't altruism toward Russia, it was a bribe. The station 
> nearly died in 
> August 1993 - it survived by one vote. 

Of course, due to cost overruns. It is the argument proving my point.


That doesn't sound like a 
> wholehearted 
> enthusiasm to me. I was at JSC at that time - most everyone was 
> sure 

that 
> Clinton would kill the station. He would have, had not Ralpha been 
> proposed. 

It is a speculation, not supported by facts. 

> (Technically, he did - Freedom went away.)

Not true. Most Freedom NASA and contractor jobs were preserved, thanks to arrangement 
with the Russians, as well as general design of Freedom modules; they were just merged 
with Mir-2.

> 
> Yes, Clinton asked for a redesign to control costs, but no one 
> believed that 
> NASA could actually do it. 

Without Soyuz and Progress, it could not. But it tried, till the bitter end, long after Russians 
asked to be admitted in the project.


>  And it didn't control costs. 

Is that what they call "Monday morning quarterbacking?" :) They could say that for sure in 
1993.

This would 
> not have 
> been excused, but for Russian involvement. 
> 
> Space projects must be seen as relevant. Including the Russians 
> made the 
> station relevant. 

It made it financially and technically feasible, plus "feel good" political dividens


It made the space station worth spending billions 
> on in the 
> minds of many politicians of both parties. 

Politicians in both parties, saw that with the Russians, Freedom's existing workforce in the 
US can continue on without addded cost of ACRV, propulsion, Shuttle backup, refueling 
systems and so on.


If Ralpha had not been 
> announced in 
> September 1993, I have no doubts that Freedom would have died in 
> 1994 or 1995.

You know that any sentence containing "I have no doubt" is a speculation, not the fact. 

 
> Only space fans would have mourned its demise.


Freedom had its contituences beyond fans, for example Congressional districts with Boeing 
contractors. The station was and remained "the next logical step," and just needed price 
control, which it got with the Russians.

> 
> Then they'd have moved on to something else - the way they're all 
> excited now 
> about dropping ISS and moving on to the moon.
>

Again, good speculation, but as we both know, the real history does not accept conditional 
tense, just facts.

 
> David
> 
> David S. F. Portree
> author & educator
> dsfportree at aol.com
> (928) 226-1427
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> falling through space, you and me. Clinging to the skin of this 
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