A potential monkey wrench has been thrown into plans to use commercial space craft to bring astronauts and cargo to and from the International Space Station. Russia is raising objections, it says, due to concerns about safety.
"'We will not issue docking permission unless the necessary level of reliability and safety [of the spacecraft] is proven. So far we have no proof that those spacecraft duly comply with the accepted norms of spaceflight safety,' said Alexei Krasov, who heads the manned spaceflight department of Roscosmos."
A test of the SpaceX Dragon that involves docking with the ISS is scheduled, tentatively for December. Twelve cargo resupply flights are planned by the Dragon through 2015, with crewed flights envisioned to follow starting in 2016.
Of course, Russia objections have little to do with safety but rather with its all but complete monopoly on access to the ISS once the space shuttle program concludes later this summer. Russia can and is essentially charging what it wants to take astronauts to the ISS on its Soyuz space craft and cargo on its automatic Progress craft. U.S. government subsidized commercial space craft such as the SpaceX Dragon threaten that monopoly.
The statement by Krasov follows standard Russian diplomatic procedure that has been practiced since the height of the Cold War. That technique is to make unreasonable, maximum demands and see how far they can be pushed. Krasov does not say what it would take for Russia to be "satisfied" that commercial space craft such as the Dragon are "safe." But one suspects that it involves concessions that have little to do with space craft safety.
The demand brings to raise a question: How is it that Russia has gotten the impression that it has veto power over how the United States brings people and supplies to a space station largely built by American money and effort? If this was part of the original agreement struck during the Clinton administration, then very probing questions will have to be asked, likely as part of a congressional investigation.
On the other hand, if the Obama administration has somehow allowed Russia to think it can ride roughshod over the United States, even more searching questions need to be asked. Sadly the record of President Barack Obama where it comes to standing up to the Russians has been a very bleak one indeed. That may be why Krasov has decided to make a fuss years after the commercial space program was started by President George W. Bush and over a year since President Obama decided to double down on the concept.
Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker. He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the LA Times, and The Weekly Standard.