India this week celebrated landing successfully on the moon – a massive, globally recognized accomplishment years in the making and a demonstration of the country’s developing scientific and technological prowess. But in Moscow, which saw a similar high-profile attempt fail just days earlier, the victory rubbed salt into its recent wound.
India’s achievement meant it joined the U.S., China and the Soviet Union as the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the moon and highlighted its growing capabilities as a force in space.
Among the praise from world leaders, the Kremlin issued an official statement from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who dutifully offered his “heartfelt congratulations” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian space program.
"This is a big step forward in space exploration and, of course, a testament to the impressive progress made by India in the field of science and technology," the statement read.
Yet for Putin, the achievement carries the consequence of further embarrassment. His own lunar mission came to an abrupt halt earlier in the week when a thruster fired for 43 seconds too long, ending a much-needed chance to assert Russian power and pride at home and abroad. And that was the beginning of a week in which he was forced to attend an international summit by videoconference for fear of arrest on an outstanding warrant for international human rights violations. It also preceded by days the suspicious sudden death of an emerging political foe. More broadly, the latest black eye comes as the 70-year-old autocrat is seeing challenges to his leadership for the first time in a nearly quarter-century rule, growing cynicism about his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, limited economic expansion prospects and a potentially destabilizing reelection bid next year.
Almost unavoidably, the setback in space would be seen by some as emblematic of the country’s larger struggles.
“Russia’s bedraggled space program mirrors the state of the nation itself, including the surprisingly poor performance of the Russian military in its war on Ukraine,” Leroy Chiao, a former NASA astronaut, wrote in an opinion piece. “Instead of making his nation a ‘great power’ again, Putin has shown the world just how badly Russia is in decline. The lamentable state of Moscow’s space program is just the latest confirmation of that.”
There were reasons to think the atrophy was not as severe. Russia, for the most part, has been a reliable partner on the International Space Station despite geopolitical tumult and for years was tasked with ferrying astronauts to and from the orbiting laboratory. Beyond that, major successes have been elusive – especially more recently.
Challenges for Russia’s space program include Western sanctions and an ongoing brain drain, according to Kari Bingen, the director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Aerospace Security Project.
“The Russians haven't done this in decades,” Bingen says. “The sanctions that have been levied against their aerospace industries and against their space program – they are having an impact. I'd also say there is a brain drain happening in Russia. Putin is sending his young people to fight an illegal war, not to go into the aerospace sector.”
The loss of bright minds to sustain the program “will have longer-term implications for their technical abilities but also for their standing as a space power within the international community.”
One of those implications is a pact signed in March 2021 by China and Russia to jointly explore the moon as they solidified a larger “no-limits” strategic partnership they would announce less than a year later. Russia’s ability to contribute to those efforts was questionable even before its most recent failure, which comes amid signs of cracks between Beijing and Moscow over Ukraine.
But, as importantly, it’s another dent in Putin’s ambition to project Russia as an international power. During the last decade, he pursued such a goal through meddling in foreign affairs like Russia’s intervention in Syria’s civil war, testing the defenses of the NATO alliance and interfering in the 2016 U.S. elections as well as working to undermine Western interests in hot spots like Iran, Afghanistan or North Korea. At home, Putin set out to foment nationalistic pride, spending fortunes on public infrastructure projects like roads and bridges and massive sports complexes surrounded by newly constructed villages to bring the world to Russia for events like the Olympic Games and international soccer’s World Cup.
With regard to space, Putin set out to build a state-of-the-art launch complex. But, perhaps foreshadowing the difficulties that would beset the Russian program, the project was plagued by cost overruns and endemic corruption widely reported within the country that saw the price balloon past $2 billion and dozens of officials fired or jailed before the facility even opened.
Now, with the value of the ruble having plunged and the war effort requiring an ever-growing capital commitment, the failure of the moon mission has proved just the opposite: a testament to Russia’s inability to compete globally as it works in the shadow of Soviet successes launching the first satellite, orbiting the first astronaut and successfully landing an unmanned spacecraft on the moon in the last century.
“Russia’s Cold War legacy will be just that – a legacy – unless they can actually do this themselves,” Victoria Samson, the Washington office director for Secure World Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes the peaceful exploration of outer space, told CNN.
Yuri Borisov, the head of Russia’s state-controlled space agency, blamed the fiasco on the long gap since its last lunar mission, which was in 1976, when Russia was a part of the Soviet Union.
“The negative experience of interrupting the lunar program for almost 50 years is the main reason for the failures,” Borisov said.
Others have pointed to systemic problems, like uneven and inexperienced leadership, the reliance on substandard building materials and chronically low salaries within the sector for various failures. And, of course, something as simple as foolish pride can’t be eliminated. Some speculated that Russia’s rush to beat India to the moon could have led it to ignore issues that arose during the mission.
“It looks like things weren’t going according to plan, but they decided not to change the schedule to prevent the Indians from coming first,” noted Vitaly Egorov, a popular Russian space blogger.
But it also shows just how difficult it is to land on the moon, given that this was India’s second attempt after a failed mission in 2019 following an Israeli moon mission that met a similar fate in 2019.
“India’s accomplishment today is a good reminder that space missions are risky and that the technology is hard,” Bingen says.
And not everyone characterized the Russian space program’s decline as so severe.
Henry Hertzfeld, a research professor of space policy and international affairs at George Washington University, says the country is still quite capable in space.
“It isn't easy," Hertzfeld says. “All nations run the risk of failure at one point or another.”
Despite the possible dent in Russia’s pride, Borisov said Monday that abandoning the lunar program would be “the worst decision” and that the country should commit to more space missions as the U.S., China and other nations weigh both the political, scientific and commercial advantages of a lasting presence on the moon.
Hertzfeld says he won't write off another moon landing attempt from Russia in the future.
“It comes at an awkward time for them with India being successful a few days later,” Hertzfeld says. “But I think given their history, given the history of the Soviet Union – they’ve landed on the moon before – it wouldn’t surprise me if they came back again at some point with another attempt.”
B |
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但直到发稿时，对于她涉嫌偷窃的指控一点回应都没有，令人诧异不已。
01
涉嫌2次在同家店行窃
新西兰开年第一件大瓜不是前总理Ardern结婚，而是绿党议员Golriz Ghahraman“偷窃门”事件。上周，我们报道了她被指控在奥克兰Ponsonby 的Scotties Boutique店行窃的新闻。
说她在去年12月23日，准备偷走价值15000纽币的衣服，被店员拦住。但她拒绝按照店员要求开包查看，然后离开了店铺。
C |
几个小时后，衣服被匿名地还回了商店。
媒体报道称，这不是她第一次涉嫌作案，在此之前的几周，她就在同一家店行窃过，简直令下惊掉下巴。
D |
作为一名国会议员，年薪至少16万多纽币，还要去行窃？太毁三观了吧。
02
无回应只会损坏声誉
事件曝光后，虽然绿党两位党魁发表声明称已停止Ghahraman在党内的职务。
E |
但是对于行窃案情细节，一切都不知道，还在了解中。
作为当事人，Ghahraman没有任何回应，因为她和朋友已出国去旅行，据称这次旅行是预先计划好的。
时评员Shane Te Pou今天表示，绿党和Ghahraman都保持沉默，加剧了民众的猜测，绿党应该挺身而出公开真相。
F |
“这事要么是真的，要么没有，我认为这中间没有灰色地带。
G | ”
“Ghahraman应该早点面对这件事，如果她做不到，她应该通过 Zoom 或任何方法，有多种方法，与她的领导者沟通，准确地告诉他们她的回应。”
Te Pou 说，这种沉默加剧了猜测，损害了绿党和Ghahraman的声誉。
“从长远看，人们正在试图压制这个问题，我认为，为了绿党，为了Ghahraman本人，解决这一切问题的关键是公开。”
“毫无疑问，她确切地知道新西兰正在发生什么，她也知道这件事的严重性，我认为她回来后会经历一段痛苦的时期。
不仅时评员感到纳闷，连绿党的党内同事也表示，自从指控事件发生后，都没有收到过Ghahraman的任何消息。
今天，Ghahraman终于回来了，到底真相是什么？是否真的有盗窃行为？一直到本文发稿时，没有任何消息。
是惊天逆转，还是直接宣布退出政坛？
让我们拭目以待。
原文链接
相关阅读：
毁三观！新西兰知名国会议员第二起偷窃事件曝光！党魁发布声明！
第二起商店行窃事件被披露，绿党议员四面楚歌
知名绿党议员被指控行窃后保持沉默，政治评论员称很难重建声誉
【先驱自媒】震惊！新西兰国会议员被指控在奥克兰精品店行窃！
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【先驱自媒】毁三观！新西兰知名国会议员第二起偷窃事件曝光！党魁发布声明！。
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