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Russian Rocket Dysfunction (RRD) [1]

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Date: 2023-02-22  

Some things simply don't work the way they used to

In addition to several space-related incidents (Soyuz leak, Progress leak, Zvezda Service module loss of pressure, Nauka module sending the ISS off course), Russia tried to test a Satan II ICBM during Biden’s trip to Ukraine (CNN).

Russia carried out a test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that appears to have failed around the time President Joe Biden was in Ukraine on Monday, according to two US officials familiar with the matter.

The test appears to not have been a surprise to US officials, meaning it wasn’t intended to upstage Biden’s trip:

The timing of the test suggests that the US and Russia were communicating through several different channels earlier this week for deconfliction purposes – US officials also notified the Russians on Sunday night, hours before Biden’s visit to Kyiv, that the president would be making the trip to the Ukrainian capital, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday.

What it does do is add weight to the questions of long-term access to space by the Russians. A previous leak (clearly a manufacturing issue that someone on their assembly line tried to cover up) was blamed by the Russians on an American (which was both ludicrous and impossible), the leak on the Soyuz was blamed on a micrometeorite, and the leak on the Progress in the same place as the Soyuz brings the causes behind the Soyuz leak into question — a manufacturing problem with coolant loops, materials, etc.

Now they have a big booster (which Russia is supposedly good at) failing… These SARMAT boosters have been around since 2016 and is supposed to carry many tons 11,000 miles (and presumably less to orbit).

So while this rocket dysfunction test wasn’t necessarily intended to upstage Biden, it probably was intended to saber-rattle the West and East into thinking twice about the specter of a dozen MIRV warheads raining down anywhere on the planet.

Instead what it has done is bring further into question whether Russia can get it up into space at all.

Impotence.

Yeah, that’s it.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/22/2154342/--RRD-Russian-Rocket-Dysfunction

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