Leading country for space exploration ?

Jorge R. Frank wrote:
Sander Vesik wrote in
:

Scott Moore wrote:
Umm, does anyone else find it funny that the leading manned spacefairing
nation on earth is now (effectively) ....... Kazakhstan ?

Whats funny about it?

What's funny to me is that it isn't true. Kazakhstan is just where Russia
launches from, and dumps their spent stages. They lack the knowledge and
manufacturing base to do it on their own. If Kazakhstan kicked the Russians
out of Baikonur, Kazakhstan would never again launch anything bigger than
an Estes toy rocket, while Russia could still launch from Plesetsk. Russia
is a lot less dependent on Kazakhstan than say, Europe is on French Guiana.


I'm sure they will be more than successful in renting the facilities and
know-how to China, Pakistan, India and possibly also Iran and Brazil. And
that is a short-list I can come up with without even trying.

--
Sander

+++ Out of cheese error +++