Brazilian to Get Ride to Space from Russia, Not U.S.
I wrote on my site AeroGo about Brazil’s decision to go ahead and pay Russia for a ride for its astronaut trainee, rather than keep waiting on NASA and a seat on the shuttle.
The U.S. has missed an opportunity to build goodwill with the largest country in South America. At a time when the Bush administration is trying to stem a rising tide of socialism in the region, apparently no one was even thinking about how space might play a diplomatic role. Instead, U.S. insensitivity has pushed Brazil toward the Russians, who haven’t exactly been a model of democracy lately.
While Russia still understands how its space program can play a political role, space has been off the radar screen for decades in Washington. As a result, once again we’ve lost an opportunity to reap some return on our investment in the space program. A lot of these returns are intangible or at least difficult to measure, such as spinoff technologies and industries, but considering the enormous expense of the space program, we need to see it pay off in as many ways as possible.
