The Russian Federation and the International Space Station : leveraging russian space strengths to control its missile technology proliferation

Abstract

In an effort to stop the old Soviet space program from plunging into a cataclysmic spiral of illicit foreign sales of its ballistic missile technology, and also to prevent the Russian space infrastructure from imploding, the United States entered into a series of bilateral and multi-national agreements to work with, and to support the inheritor of the Soviet space legacy, the Russian Space Agency. This thesis discusses how a partnership with the Russian Federation and Russian Space Agency within the International Space Station can both act as an incentive for the Russians to prevent illicit proliferation of its space and ballistic missile technology and offer unique, viable operational, technical, and scientific advantages for the International Space Station and the United States. Alternative options to, and limits on, a partnership with Russia will also be presented and discussed