Possibly Good News Options

[dvandorn]

I'm watching NASA TV at the moment, and Michael Griffin, the new NASA Administrator, is speaking to a panel in Congress. (It *may* be a taped presentation, although NASA TV usually puts the date of taped replays in the corner, and there is no date here...)

Griffin presented them with a message, co-signed by Condoleeza Rice, which recommends that the Iranian Nuclear Proliferation Act, which prohibits the American government from having any business dealings with Russia until and unless Russia stops providing Iran nuclear power plant technologies, be amended. As it stands now, as of April of next year, NASA would no longer be able to purchase Soyuz or Progress support for any American space activities. In other words, in Griffin's own words in fact, there could only be an American presence on the ISS while the Shuttle was present at the station.

The recommendation takes into account that this act has not been effective at chaniging Russia's policies, and apparently asks for all space co-operation funding that ought to go to Russia to help us continue to operate the ISS be exempted from the ban.

Depending on your views about the ISS and our relationship with Russia, this could be good news. At the very least, it assures that we will be able to keep ISS going on a reasonable basis for a while, yet...

Oh, OT for this particular board, Griffin just said it would be "rather dumb" to turn off Voyagers 1 and 2. GOOD!

-the other Doug