Watch the video above: Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister said on Tuesday that American sanctions against Russia would hurt America’s space effort – and quipped that the US would have to use a “trampoline” to deliver their astronauts into space.
The U.S. is examining new ways to get astronauts into space. Using a trampoline isn’t one of them.
However, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister said maybe it should be.
Dimitry Rogozin told a press conference on Tuesday that American sanctions against Russia over the crisis in Crimea could hurt the American’s space effort.
READ MORE: NASA cuts ties with Russia over Ukraine crisis; co-operation with space station continues
In 2011, NASA mothballed its space program, leaving them without a means of getting its astronauts to and from the space station. Instead, they pay Russia for each astronaut trip — a cost of about $70 million a trip.
Commercial spacecraft is being developed, most notably by SpaceX, which is already sending supplies to the ISS on its Dragon spacecraft. But so far that spacecraft is for supplies only.
After the remark, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted that it may be a good time to unveil its next Dragon human-rated spacecraft. He followed it up with a date on its unveiling, which is due at the end of May.
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