
Russia appears to have surrendered to SpaceX in the global launch market - startupflix
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/04/russia-appears-to-have-surrendered-to-spacex-in-the-global-launch-market/
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fwdpropaganda
At which point is this "surrender" just a stubborn pride thing?

Russia could "easily" say: "well, now that this guy has proved that vertical
landing is possible, we're going to start doing the same thing and compete on
price." They would have the "second mover advantage".

What's stopping them from going this route, other than the embarassement that
they were basically bested by one guy?

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yostrovs
Russia doesn't have the resources to develop new advanced technologies. Most
smart people left for high salaries, ones remaining make money in business,
not engineering.

Russia's space industry has essentially relied on tech developed during Soviet
Union. Try to think of any technology that's not encryption related that was
developed in Russia in last 20 years.

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fwdpropaganda
> Russia doesn't have the resources to develop new advanced technologies.

> Try to think of any technology that's not encryption related that was
> developed in Russia in last 20 years.

Yandex.

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orbital-decay
Was there any "surrendering" really? The only competing launch vehicle was
Proton-M. My impression is that Proton-M developer Khrunichev basically
collapsed because of reliability issues and poorly thought out production
relocation strategy (from Moscow to Omsk). It has little to do with Falcon 9;
ILS would have lost the market share to any other company due to Khrunichev's
internal issues.

