America’s Irresolute Abandonment of Its Space Shuttle Program — Deservedly Came Back to Haunt Us during the Ukraine Dustup

© 2014 Peter Free

 

15 May 2014

 

 

First, we were willing to let America’s manufacturing capacity evaporate, and then we decided to abandon our ability to get to the Space Station

 

And now, a whole “buncha” nobodies “gonna” pull our chain:

 

 

In early April, NASA announced that it would sever the majority of its contract with the Russian government in retaliation for its interference in the Crimean peninsula.

 

In late April, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin joked that given NASA’s inability to launch its own astronauts into space — due to the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet — it should instead use a large trampoline to reach orbit.

 

Now, things are just getting nasty.

 

Russia is tired of the increased sanctions (the most troublesome for Russia is a recent U.S. sanction that bars export licenses and revokes existing licenses for advanced technology items used for Russian military purposes) and is firing back at the U.S. in a way that could jeopardize its future civilian and military efforts in space.

 

Rogozin today announced that:

 

It will not allow the U.S. to have access to the ISS after the year 2020 (the U.S. wants to prolong the life of the station until 2024)

 

The U.S. will be forbidden from purchasing Russian NK-33 and RD-180 rocket engines to launch military satellites

 

© 2014 Brandon Hill, Russia Fights Back Against U.S. Sanctions; Will Deny NASA Access to ISS After 2020, DailyTech (13 May 2014) (extracts)

 

 

“You mean, Pete, we can’t do everything on the cheap and still wear our Big Boy pants?”

 

Yup.

 

The United States government and its public have abandoned a solid sense of national purpose and achievement to becoming a toadying facade for multi-national corporations.  These entities are exclusively committed to making money for oligarchs, and America’s security and national purposes mean nothing to them.  Hence, our failure to commit to maintaining a strong American industrial and space infrastructure.

 

The last decades, for example, have seen an astonishing American disregard for common sense national security with respect to failing to maintain our ability to produce the rare earths, which are vital to our self-defense and electronics industries. (See here and here.)

 

And today, in similar vein, Russia — with less than half our population and economically vastly less capable — is successfully pulling our sanction-imposing chain over Ukraine because we were too stupid to take measures to prevent opening the easily anticipated “Space Avenue” to our glass jaw.

 

Even in very more obviously predictable instances, United States policy is strategically blind.  For example, there was significant political opposition to trying to keep American auto manufacturing viable, during the 2008 economic recession.  Despite the fact that it, and other similar blue collar heavy industries, had been the most vitally important keys to our success in waging World War II.

 

 

The moral? — Never underestimate our capacity to combine arrogance with astonishing strategic ineptness

 

Avarice, hubris, hypocrisy and strategic stupidity appear to be requirements for employment in the top ranks of federal government and much of Congress.  A quiescently ignorant public does not help the situation.

 

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin’s joke about the US using a trampoline to get into space is an apt one.  It expresses the light-hearted contempt that our potential adversaries can take toward a nation that equates military prowess alone with the larger concept of diverse and deeply founded and cleverly wielded power.

 

In regard our quarrel with Russia over Ukraine, we can (at least tentatively) conclude that when you get yourself into a minor biting match with a much smaller dog, and the little guy is winning, you had better assess whether:

 

(a) it might be wise to stop barking hot air

 

and/or

 

(b) begin building real muscle that can actually be applied to the specifics of the pertinent situation.

 

Geopolitical competence includes the idea of not becoming dependent on your adversary’s control of the things that you most may need.  National wisdom includes the idea of not starting or escalating a fight that one cannot win, or will lose face conducting.

 

This is called strategic thinking and means implementation.

 

The more oligarchical our society becomes, the worse we get at both.