FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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NASA Administrator Bridenstine in Russia To Strengthen Space Partnership

Oct. 13, 2018 (EIRNS)—NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, talking to reporters yesterday at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, said that Russian engineers have a “really good idea” of the cause of the Oct. 11 engine failure of the Soyuz rocket carrying two crew to the International Space Station. Bridenstine had gone to Baikonur, Kazakhstan to attend the launch of a two-man Russian-American crew to the ISS. “I think the investigation is going to go swiftly,” he said. Bridenstine said, “I fully anticipate that we will fly again on a Soyuz rocket, and I have no reason to believe at this point that it will not be on schedule.” The next flight is scheduled for December. “No changes [in the schedule] have been made,” he said. Praising the Russian and American rescue teams, he said, “Not every mission that fails ends up so successful.”

Bridenstine made a video earlier this past week in Moscow before the accident, in which he emphasized that his job is to strengthen the U.S.-Russia space partnership. Yesterday he praised the relationship between Moscow and Washington in space: “To keep space separate from the political environment has always been our tradition, and we want to keep that going forward.”