The exploits of America in space tourism industry have impressed the Russians. Dmitry Rogozin is the director general of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency. He invited Elon Musk over to his home for a cup of tea. In his words: "I like what your people are doing — people who spend their own money on things useful for overall society." On the subject of space tourism, he watched Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson undertake space tourism and wished his own men would follow.
He lamented that Russian millionaires invest in yachts rather than in spaceships.
He hopes the next generations would be different. Incidentally, he is all praises for the SpaceX founder and invited the American over to his home in Russia for tea. He says the instability that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union is a possible factor for Russia’s stagnation in space. One of the points he wants to discuss with him is how we can use space to preserve life on Earth.
Elon Musk helped NASA become self-reliant
Rogozin described Musk as an organizer of the space industry and an inventor. He added that the entrepreneur is not afraid to take risks. The contribution of SpaceX to NASA is immense. The American space agency used to rely on Russia to transport astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).
That was after the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet. Elon Musk gave NASA an alternative. Last year his SpaceX launched astronauts from American soil for the first time in nearly a decade. Russia and America are leaders in the field of space research. They have difference of opinion on many subjects but once in the space lab, they work as a team to learn more about life in space.
NASA paid the Russians nearly $4 billion for seats on Soyuz rockets between 2011 and 2019. SpaceX ended that dependency and brought economy in operations. Elon Musk is upbeat about manned missions to the Moon and Mars. He is an entrepreneur with a vision and conceptualized the reusable rockets to cut down costs.
Chief of Roscosmos invites Elon Musk for tea
Roscosmos is the space agency of Russia. It is the equivalent of NASA, the American space agency. Dmitry Rogozin is the chief of Roscosmos. He showered praises on Musk and invited him for tea and talks. He went to the extent of saying the American had snatched the initiative from Russia by completing many of the projects that the Russians had in mind. This speaks volumes for the respect one specialist has for another. He says: "Mr Elon Musk realises many of the ideas and thoughts that we wanted to realise, but did not get to because, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, our space program halted for some time."
Elon Musk ended the partnership between NASA and Roscosmos
SpaceX ended the partnership between NASA and Roscosmos.
In the last decade, NASA astronauts traveled to the ISS on Russian Soyuz rockets. That was a mutual agreement but involved huge sums of money. It was because of discontinuance of the shuttle program of the Americans. Musk evolved the solution. NASA now uses SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule to send its astronauts into orbit. Russia's space Chief Dmitry Rogozin wants to meet up with Elon Musk. He extended an invitation to him to be a guest of his family. He wants to discuss subjects like extraterrestrial life. Musk has plans to colonize planets in the solar system. Last year, he said his plans include sending a million people to the red planet by 2050.
