From: tl@none.invalid   
      
   Jeff Findley   wrote:   
   >In article ,   
   >jfmezei.spamnot@vaxination.ca says...   
   >> They built Mir. And the Russian segment if ISS is an evolution of it.   
   >> And they are to lauunch a new lab module this year replacing the nadir   
   >> airlock.   
   >   
   >To be fair, the Nauka plans date back to the early 2000s.  It's original   
   >launch date was supposed to be back in 2007.  We're still waiting for it   
   >to launch.  That's not terribly impressive.  So, I'm not sure what China   
   >is thinking teaming up with Russia.   
      
   In fact, according to Scott Manley they need to launch it before the   
   end of the year because the warranty on a number of the modules   
   expires then (or if not launched by then, it's a bit unclear)!   
      
   He usually put a lot of effort into researching for his videos so I'm   
   inclined to believe him on this given the history of Nauka.   
      
   IE, it started out as a backup for Zarya in case of a launch failure   
   and at one point was at least 70% complete (and might have progressed   
   even further). Zarya was successfully launched in 1998 so they didn't   
   need the backup and so they later decided to repurpose it for Nauka.   
      
   They seem to have rebuilt most in the mid-2000 forward but I would be   
   surprised if there weren't still a considerable number of parts that   
   was installed in the initial 1994-1998 build period.   
      
   And the initially planned launch year appears to have been 2007 so   
   it's now more than 13 years delayed. And as noted there's likely parts   
   in it that are at least 27-28 year old.   
      
      
   >> However, China has something needed to go to the moon: money. And   
   >> that is something Russia isn't getting with low price of oil and   
   >> sanctions against country.   
   >   
   >True.   
      
   Yup, and I expect that there's still a number of competent engineers   
   in the Russian space program that must be really frustrated by   
   designing a long succession of paper rockets.   
      
   So from Russias side it might also be a way to try to keep their   
   rocket engineers from wandering off to greener pastures (like one of   
   the small-sat launcher companies) so they have the resources when (not   
   if) they want to say modernise their ICBMs.   
      
   1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INiagI9MjvU   
      
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