The Russian space chief loves the latest US restrictions

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, left, speaks with Dmitry Rogozin of Roscosmos in 2019.
Enlarge / NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, left, speaks with Dmitry Rogozin of Roscosmos in 2019.

On Monday, the US Department of Commerce released a list of Chinese and Russian companies reportedly having military ties. The list cites 58 Chinese and 43 Russian companies as “military end users” and requires exporters to obtain a license before selling their products. Such licenses are unlikely to be issued.

“The Department recognizes the importance of leveraging its partnerships with US and international companies to combat the efforts of China and Russia to divert US technology to their destabilizing military programs,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said at the announcement.

The list includes several aerospace companies in China and Russia, including the Progress Rocket Space Center in Samara, Russia. This company develops and manufactures the Soyuz rockets that have transported Russian and American astronauts to the International Space Station for the past ten years after the US space shuttle retired.

The Soyuz manufacturer’s recording got a quick reprimand on Tuesday from Dmitry Rogozin, the leader of the Russian space company Roscosmos. In his heated statement, Rogozin said the restrictions were “illegal”, characterizing them as “stupid.”

“This Samara company manufactures the legendary Soyuz-2 launchers, which have been using the Soyuz MS spacecraft to bring American astronauts to the ISS for 10 years,” he said. Now it appears that our American colleagues have their ‘trampoline’ working again, and the first thing they did is spit in the Samara well. Isn’t it too early, colleagues, in case your ‘trampoline’ suddenly breaks down again and you have to satisfy your passion for space from our source again? “

Six years later

Rogozin’s comment about a trampoline dates back to six years ago, when he was personally the target of US government sanctions following the Russian invasion of Crimea. Back then, when NASA was fully committed to Russia to bring astronauts to the International Space Station, Rogozin said“After analyzing the sanctions against our space industry, I propose that the US deliver their astronauts to the ISS with a trampoline.”

Ultimately, this turned out to be embarrassing for Rogozin. In May, after SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket launched people from the United States into orbit for the first time since 2011, company founder Elon Musk joked, “The trampoline works.” SpaceX has since safely launched a second crew to the Space Station and has two more missions scheduled for 2021. Roscosmos has not yet committed to flying a cosmonaut on the US vehicle.

So, with his final comments, Rogozin suggests that the SpaceX vehicles may still have a problem. Perhaps unsurprisingly, as Ars recently reported, Rogozin seems obsessed with SpaceX’s success and how it has hurt his own company’s economic prospects.

None of this seems to be helpful to the ongoing collaboration between NASA and Roscosmos to operate the space station. Rogozin acknowledges this, saying, “These sanctions are damaging because they will create additional obstacles and irritations in such an important collaboration between Russians and Americans in space and on the ISS in particular.”

Six years ago, Rogozin’s words turned out to be nothing more than blunder. It remains to be seen whether today’s statement and the ramifications of these economic constraints create a more permanent problem for the international partnership that has now successfully flown through the space station for more than two decades.

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