As NASA seeks next mission, Russia holds the trump card

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Such is today’s space Realpolitik that, while the United States paid for most of the $140 billion space station, launched nearly all of it into orbit, and controls most of its day-to-day operations from Houston, Russia still holds the trump card: access.

“They have us right where they want us,” said three-time NASA astronaut Mike Coats.

The mounting Ukraine crisis has highlighted the space agency’s vulnerability, but this state of affairs is not new. Russia began embracing NASA in a bear hug right after the space shuttle retired in 2011.


Former Johnson Space Center Director Mike Coats discusses NASA’s relationship with Russia.

Since that time Russia has substantially hiked the price of a trip to the International Space Station, to $71 million per seat. Less well recognized is the disparity in station crews. Before the shuttle stopped flying, an equal number of American and Russian crew members lived on board. But afterwards the bear began squeezing. For every two NASA astronauts that have flown to the station, three Russians have gone.

NASA doesn’t advertise this, of course. It’s an embarrassing reminder to the country’s political leadership of how their legislative vagaries have cast the space agency adrift.

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“Astronaut to cosmonaut, scientist to scientist, engineer to engineer, we’ve had a wonderful working relationship with the Russians,” he said. “But politically, if they see an opportunity to exercise an advantage they have to do it. It’s in their makeup. They view weakness as something to be taken advantage of.

“It’s difficult dealing with Russians from a position of weakness, and we’re doing that.”

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