From: pv02@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (PETER VOROBIEFF)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Soviet Space Program: Beware of the Ignorants!
Date: 1 Oct 92 22:06:39 GMT
Organization: Lehigh University

Hi!

Or I'd better say - prepare your hydrants and fire extinguishers, for
I am going to pour some _real_ hydrogen-oxygen into this stagnant and
evilly infamous mail area.

In article <LEONID.92Sep29123132@tuna.uchicago.edu>, leonid@tuna.uchicago.edu (Leonid Andreev) writes:
>In article <rabjab.182.0@golem.ucsd.edu> rabjab@golem.ucsd.edu (Jeff Bytof) writes:
>
>>   How is the xSU's space program funded?  Taxes of the general population,
>>   profits from sales of raw materials to other countries, other?
>>
>
>OK, first of all, your main mistake is, that you use
>present time: "How IS it funded?" "Who DOES decide?" etc...
>It WAS funded! Now they've got no money for that, so
>NOBODY decides, what the program does... :)

For three years I have been employed by the Russian branch of 
the Association of Space Explorers, so I can clarify this question
with some competency. Nevertheless, I will express my _personal_ point 
of view, not one of the ASE-Russia.

1. Yeltsin government still supplies Russian space program with some 
funds, though this funding is far from sufficient.

2. The decisions on spending the money are taken in Glavkosmos, but 
to be put into life they need government approval.

3. Glavkosmos earns considerable sums of hard currency every year
on commercial space flights.

4. There are private enterprises in Russia interested in funding space
industry too. Some of them have already made investments.

5. If it hadn't been for the _very_ ugly policy of the NATO block
countries, stinking of Cold War, Glavkosmos would have already
established itself in the world space market at much more important
position than one it occupies now.

>It is not totally correct, that it was funded by
>"taxes of general population". Officially, there
>practically were not any taxes in the country.
>They just paid you 10% of what you really made
>( note, that all the industry was state-owned,
>so whatever you were doing, you were 
>always paid by the government ). And they ( the
>government ) were free to spend these remaining
>90% the way they liked . ( "free" health care, "free"
>education ... and off course, space programs )
___________________^^^^^^^^^^                     
OFF COURSE means "off the course", I suppose. Funding space research
never was the prime objective of the Soviet financial policy.

In the fifties and early sixties the space projects were funded with
the leftovers of the strategic missile carrier program money. That was
done mostly to attract scientists with more interesting problems and
to get long-range carrier technology from them as a by-product.

In the late sixties, when the scientists claimed money for some purely
scientific and relatively expensive projects (the Moon manned expedition,
the hypersonic atmosphere-space vehicle and extended automated search
for life on Mars), the funds were cut and all the said projects were 
killed. That coincided with the deaths of Chief Constructor Korolyov,
Cosmonauts Gagarin and Komarov and other important people involved in  
space research. Whether all these deaths were accidental, nobody knows.

In the seventies Soviet space program was reduced mostly to low-orbit
manned flights that took relatively little money and brought great 
profits because most of the non-military flights were dedicated to the
study of global structure of Earth surface. Many places rich with oil and
gas were located with the help of space photography data etc. Also satellite
photography was used in meteorology and allowed to improve the quality
of weather forecasts. The number of purely scientific missions was
relatively small, though some of them were very successful (Venus and
Galley comet probes, for instance).
 
>
>>   What are the short and long term prospects for continued funding
>>   of the xSU space program?
>Both the long&short terms prospects were:
>To compete West and the USA in particular. Let the
>people get 10 times worse quality of living, 
>but we have to launch as many satellites as
>the USA does. 

I'd like to give you an advice here, Leonid: molchi - za umnogo
soydyosh'. The US _N_E_V_E_R_ could even ATTEMPT to beat the SU
in the number of satellite launches - there were years when we
launched FIVE TIMES MORE objects into space than they did. Yes,
our low-orbit satellites are short-lived and need constant replacement,
but they are dirt cheap. And our satellite-launch system is THE CHEAPEST
and MOST RELIABLE in the world. The NASA and ESA are scared shitless
of Glavkosmos - they won't be able to beat our prices and give the same
level of reliability for at least seven years.

The Commies wanted our space program to compete with the American
one, the cosmonauts to be launched before the Communist Party holidays
etc. But at the level of the scientists and engineers there never was
any competition. Our space programs are entirely different. When they
sent a probe to Mars, we sent a probe to Venus. We developed cheap
non-reusable vehicles, they developed expensive partly-reusable ones.
We built space stations, they built long-range interplanetary probes
(save Skylab and Venera projects). And, at the same time, there was
cooperation, especially in the eighties. Remember how the Russian, ESA
and Japanese Galley comet probes exchanged information to locate the
comet nucleus?

The Soviet, European and American space programs could cooperate very
successfully because they complemented each other. And it is very
upsetting to see the decline of the Soviet space research due to the
joint efforts of Bush and Yeltsin governments. If our space program
fades from existence, it will be an irreplaceable loss for all the
humanity and may put the future of Earth in great danger. If Man remains
chained to the Earth, both are doomed for sure.

There are lots of people who masquerade their ignorance and short-sightedness
behind university titles or loud political names. I am tired of the shit
they put afloat in their speeches on the TV and in their articles in the
newspapers. I believe that these assholes _really_ don't realize the 
importance of space research to the survival of our civilization. And I
would be very upset to meet such people among the netters.

Blood and Death are waiting,
Like a raven in the sky - 
I was born to die.
Hear me when I live,
As I look into your eyes - 
None shall hear a lie.


-- 
Thus spake Kalmoth the Vile, Slayer of the Seven Pigs of the North.