Russia may lack the funds to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket

Considering that Russia has a GDP less than Texas', it's amazing they can do what they do as it is.

Russia may lack the funds to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket
"The development of new boosters is doubtful from a practical perspective."
6/7/2018

https://arstechnica.com/science/201...unds-to-compete-with-spacexs-falcon-9-rocket/

As for the heavier lift Angara rocket, Moiseev said there is little need to build the bigger rocket at this time because Russia has no specific payloads for it. "We only need to build the new booster if there is a specific mission to launch something the older boosters aren't capable of lifting," Moiseev said.

Sound like a logical approach for some other booster programs? Cough, cough, SLS, cough, cough...

Making such valid judgements is what you must do when you can't borrow this much to cover your insane budget deficits:

Fiscal 2018
Primary Dealer January 2018 forecast: $750 billion
CBO July 2018 forecast: $563 billion
OMB February 2017 forecast: $440 billion

Fiscal 2019
Primary Dealer January 2018 forecast: $965 billion
CBO July 2018 forecast: $689 billion
OMB February 2017 forecast: $526 billion

Fiscal 2020
Primary Dealer January 2018 forecast: $1.025 trillion
CBO July 2018 forecast: $775 billion
OMB February 2017 forecast: $488 billion

The russians should tap...

The US taxpayer...

It worked for elon...

Winston said:

Considering that Russia has a GDP less than Texas', it's amazing they can do what they do as it is.

Russia may lack the funds to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket

Click to expand...

Cute excuse.
Funding? Really?

SpaceX went through multiple funding series, adding up to about $2B, as detailed here:
https://www.crunchbase.com/organiza...ds/funding_rounds_list#section-funding-rounds


Putin siphons off that much cash from the state budget and oil revenues, into his private accounts, in less than a month.
Their military budget is about $50B/year (~10% of ours, ~30% of that of China).

Yeah, they've got the funds.

They just can't get it up.

a

afadeev said:

Cute excuse.
Funding? Really?

SpaceX went through multiple funding series, adding up to about $2B, as detailed here:
https://www.crunchbase.com/organiza...ds/funding_rounds_list#section-funding-rounds


Putin siphons off that much cash from the state budget and oil revenues, into his private accounts, in less than a month.
Their military budget is about $50B/year (~10% of ours, ~30% of that of China).

Yeah, they've got the funds.

They just can't get it up.

Click to expand...

First of all, they've already developed and successfully launched the rocket they say they won't further develop and enhance due to a lack of a mission requiring that. I'm sure it was developed for a small fraction of what the SLS has cost us just so far.

Second, they've got the funds if they wanted to, as I pointed out, build a rocket for which there is no defined mission... like our SLS. My point was that because they aren't able to foolishly borrow vast sums like we do, they are forced to prioritize... unlike us. They are forced to live more within their means because few are willing to lend them money.

Too bad that isn't the same situation for us because now that our national debt is so HUGE, if interest rates ever go back to their approximate 5.5% historic norm, we are screwed just with annual interest payment on the accrued debt alone OR, if inflation is used to greatly reduce the unit value of the dollar thereby reducing the value of amount to be paid back and of the interest payments, that will also serve to crash the vastly over-inflated markets, over-inflated due to a decade of "easy money" worldwide and reduce the value of every dollar based asset you own - your home, your car, your bank account balance, ect.

Meanwhile, with our MAIN adversary, China, we are doing exactly as predicted by the comms many years ago - "A capitalist will sell you the rope you hang him with."

Too bad that isn't the same situation for us because now that our national debt is so HUGE, if interest rates ever go back to their approximate 5.5% historic norm, we are screwed just with annual interest payment on the accrued debt alone OR, if inflation is used to greatly reduce the unit value of the dollar thereby reducing the value of amount to be paid back and of the interest payments, that will also serve to crash the vastly over-inflated markets, over-inflated due to a decade of "easy money" worldwide and reduce the value of every dollar based asset you own - your home, your car, your bank account balance, ect.

Meanwhile, with our MAIN adversary, China, we are doing exactly as predicted by the comms many years ago - "A capitalist will sell you the rope you hang him with."

Click to expand...

Agreed. The US debt is frightening. As citizens we ignore it, because it is not pressing us in our everyday lives. Conceivably, the debt can back to haunt us.

With regard to the Russians I am amazed that their economy is so strained. Nevertheless, with regard to "routine" manned space flight there slow but steady race has paid off.

Aside from all that, there's a really interesting video on Amazon Prime titled: "Angara - The Russian Super Rocket" 44m (2016) subtitled.

"December 23, 2014. Angara, a new rocket, was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. This rocket has five rocket modules, equipped with reusable engines and an effective solution to launch objects into the orbit. How was the rocket created and will it be a breakthrough in travelling to the Moon and Mars?"

Funny though, I don't recall the video mentioning 'reusable' anywhere, and there are no obvious means for it.

KidRockET said:

The russians should tap...

The US taxpayer...

It worked for elon...

Click to expand...

As I understand the history, the US did lend SpaceX some money early on but was paid back in full fairly quickly. Since then the money that has been paid to SpaceX has been in exchange for launching satellites and ISS cargo, it wasn't a loan or a gift.

That's like saying I've been tapped by Kroger because I've "given" them thousands and thousands of dollars a year for the past 30 years. If you ignore all the groceries I've gotten in return it certainly does seem like that.