From: frank.scrooby@gmail.com   
      
   Greetings all,   
      
   <>   
      
   "memorandum of understanding" are easy and cheap to draw up, and look pretty   
   for the clueless press.   
      
   Bending metal and testing metal is expensive and hard. Getting said bent and   
   tested metal anywhere useful (preferably without killing a bunch of people) is   
   even more expensive and harder.   
      
   In short I'll believe it when I see it.   
      
   I don't doubt that that China and Russia have the knowledge and even some of   
   the expertise, but realistically:   
      
   What has Russia done in space in the last twenty years except build   
   cookie-cutter copies of the Soyuz and Progress, and their launch vehicle, and   
   mostly get them to ISS on time? No great interplanetary probes, no new modules   
   for ISS, no independent space    
   station development.    
      
   The Chinese launched a couple of people into space, and even a short lived   
   space station where (I think) 3 astronauts had fun and did experiments for a   
   couple of days. Then??? Nothing on the human in space front. No follow up   
   program, no Chinese    
   astronauts going to ISS.    
      
   Musk and SpaceX have a better chance of building a lunar orbiting space   
   station first. Musk probably is spending more money on SpaceX that the   
   Russians are on their space program.   
      
   Regards   
   Frank   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)