Monday, April 12, 2010

Russian President Calls For International Space Summit In Call To ISS

Just days before President Obama visits Kennedy Space Center for a conference with U.S. leaders, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev today called for a space summit on a more global scale.

"Space is our highest priority, regardless of how hard the economic situation is in the country. Space will always remain our priority. This is not just somebody's interpretation, it's our official state position. I am here in my presidential office and when addressing you, I can confirm again the significance of space for the government," Medvedev said in a call to the crew of the International Space Station on the 49th anniversary of the launch of Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who became the first human to fly into outer space in 1961.

In those early days of space exploration, Medvedev said, "development of cosmonautics was based on ideology and now, this is the area where we should try to assist each other in creating the mechanisms that will yield collective results. And this cooperation, I believe, is extremely important for the future, taking into account that space programs become more and more complicated, more and more costly, and the goals that we set become more and more complicated."

"No country can develop space alone, we need to combine our efforts and we need to talk about it more often," Medvedev added. "So maybe we could have some sort of international meeting, maybe at the heads of governments level. Because we talk about various issues, such as tackling all kinds of challenges, dangers and hazards that humanity is facing these days, various disarmament programs, etc., but there is a very important and positive factor that unites us all. So maybe it would be good to have a summit, maybe at the heads of governments level, for the countries that are working in space. So see, I have a very good idea on this holiday. What do you think? We could invite you to participate as well."

Station commander Oleg Kotov, a Russian cosmonaut, said the International Space Station is "a great example of international cooperation where we have two completely different technical schools, Russian and U.S., and we combine our effort, we found the interfaces not only for machines but also for humans and we've created this wonderful, fully functional station."

Kotov likened the station and its crew to "a single organism."

"The crew functions as one body even though it consists of representatives from different countries. We have had a European astronaut on board, we have Japanese astronauts on board right now, we have American astronauts, Russian, and we understand each other perfectly, we don't have any conflicts and I hope this will be true also regarding our cooperation everywhere else."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank God one of our countries has a rational leader. If the Russians are willing to keep both of our space programs viable, not only for the technological advantages but also for the US-USSR cooperation, we darn well should be interested also. Wake up Obama. We are not talking about a dream anymore. Its reality!!!

Stephen C. Smith said...

President Medvedev obviously understands what is the same basic thinking behind President Obama's FY 2011 NASA budget proposal -- no one nation can afford to go it alone.

There is no such thing as who's "#1" in space. We go as a species.

Anonymous said...

There are a few ways you can read into this, One, The Russians don't want to go this alone, it costs to much. two, The Russian president is slamming Obama for his short sightedness. Three, It's an attempt at selling the benefits of joint operations in space, when in reality the Russians know that the USA is an inovator of advanced technology when we are prodded. Do the Russians think we need a lot more prodding...YES

Anonymous said...

My impression is that it has been decided already...we were not told just yet. But, if the Russians are saying this is what they want to do it is probably because they have been told they will not get it...unless the US taxpayers' decide that is what will happen. So far, there is no indication that the proposed 'visit' to the Space Center of April 15th is to say anything else different than what it is on the agenda. There is a script of talking points and an agenda to accomplish and they do not have the same rhetoric. Talking points is for those who do not connect the dots...the carryed out agenda is the reality that we all have to live with.

Stephen C. Smith said...

It's occurred to me that maybe it's more than coincidental that Medvedev proposes this three days before Obama's space policy speech.

Perhaps Obama intends to propose just such a global space summit, and to hold it here in the Space Coast.

That would certainly back into a corner the hypocrites who've been calling the Russian and Chinese our "enemies." If they come here with jobs, I suspect their feigned xenophobia will suddenly evaporate in the presence of naked self-interest.

More about this on my blog at www.spaceksc.com.

Anonymous said...

If only they would tell us where we realy have been and where we really are in space. If only they would tell us that all of these so called cutting edge technologies are rellics of a past age. WE DONT NEED HEAVY LIFT ROCKETS OR EVEN FUEL. It's all for show. We went to the moon in 1962 and Mars in 1965. And we continue to do to this day exactly what you think we might do if we made it there. We're mining it.