Obama Subsidizing Russian Space Program

by JASmius



To the tune of half a billion dollars a year.  Which, I suppose, puts the Russian Federal Space Agency on a par with Planned Parenthood:

NASA told Congress on Wednesday that it will have to spend half a billion dollars to pay Russia to fly astronauts to the International Space Station.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden sent a letter to Congress saying the agency would need to pay $490 million to Russia for six seats on Soyuz rockets for U.S. astronauts to fly through 2017. That comes to nearly $82 million a seat, up from $71 million a seat.

Bolden blamed Congress for needing the extra money for seats.

Of course he did.  Because the fact that it was Barack Obama that canceled the U.S. manned space program, mothballed our space shuttles, and sent NASA off on irrelevant radical tangents like fighting fictitious "global warming" and "Muslim outreach" couldn't have had anything to do with it.

It's been a while since I've pointed this out, so here's a reminder: The same country that is regularly buzzing our national airspace with nuclear-armed strategic bombers and is plotting to invade and knock over NATO and is arming our Iranian enemies with fifth-generation air defense capabilities and to which we have surrendered the ultimate high ground is our only ride to even low Earth orbit.

That half-bil isn't sub-orbital cab fare, it's tribute.