[FPSPACE] ESA-RSA cooperation on manned spacecraft

[Keith Gottschalk]

Dear FPSPAC-ers, 

   I share the joy that one of us expressed when posting here an
announcement about ESA-RSA cooperation on a manned spacecraft. Since no
other space agency has remotely the same budget as NASA, it makes sense,
& is long overdue in a post-Cold War century, for ESA, RSA, JAXA and
others to pool their efforts.

    But the ONLY fact that the news report concerned said was that the
RSA "will start talks" with ESA on some post-Kliper project. That is a
long way from signing legally enforceable contracts! More than one such
talk in the past has not led to anything concrete.This is only the first
stage. 

   We should only let our emotions get excited when the negotiators
revert back to their political principals, and get the budgets go-ahead.
The Russian budget has got room to raise space budgets - as long as oil
& gas prices remain high - but the ESA budget might well be hurt by what
the media calls the "sub-prime mortgage recession". 

yours prudently, Keith

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