Минулого року Конгрес прийняв закон що забороняє Пентагону купувати у кацапів ракетні двигуни, які американці закуповували від 2000 року.
Не пройшло й 5 місяців, як Пентагон почав тиснути на Конгрес, щоб той пом“якшив санкції, мотивуючи це тим, що нові двигуни будуть потрібні ще на кілька років для запуску ракет, які виводять військові та розвідувальні супутники США на орбіту.
Коротше, “бардак в Королівстві Датському“...
Pentagon Seeks Easing of Ban on Russian Rockets for U.S. Space MissionsBy STEVEN LEE MYERSJUNE 3, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/world/europe/pentagon-seeks-easing-of-ban-on-russian-rockets-for-us-space-missions.html?_r=0WASHINGTON — After Russia annexed Crimea last year, Congress passed legislation that forced the Pentagon to stop buying Russian rocket engines that have been used since 2000 to help launch American military and intelligence satellites into space.
Now, that simple act of punishment is proving difficult to keep in place.
Only five months after the ban became law, the Pentagon is pressing Congress to ease it. It says that additional Russian engines will be needed for at least a few more years in order to assure access to space for the country’s most delicate defense and intelligence technology.
The retreat has angered Russia’s fiercest critics in Congress, including Senator John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee. He said that NPO Energomash, the Russian company that makes the rockets and has close ties to President Vladimir V. Putin, stood to make $300 million from sales that would otherwise come to end.
The ban applies only to national security missions, but the Pentagon’s request has also frustrated those who have pressed to end American reliance on Russia for NASA and commercial spaceflights, at a time when relations between the two countries have become tenser than in any other period since the Cold War.
“I don’t know what the Pentagon’s position can be, except for them and the Obama administration trying to placate Putin,” Representative Duncan Hunter, Republican of California and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said. He predicted that the legislative fight would intensify in the months ahead.
“Can you imagine the space race using Russian rockets?” he said.
