Why is NASA launching Russians into space?

Question

Why aren't the Russians launching their own people on their own turf?

As long as NASA isn't forking up all the money and the Russians are pulling their own weight, I suppose there's no harm in cooperating.

Answer 1

Probably because the Russian's were the only way Americans could get into space when the Shuttle was grounded after Columbia.

And international cooperation is one of the greatest assets of the space program. Single-minded people like you create war, and one of the greatest achievements of space exploration is that we don't see countries, we see people. We are all in this together, get over it.

Answer 2

Is cooperation a bad thing? All launches are in support of the INTERNATIONAL Space Station. I believe that last year, the Russians launched an American up to the ISS, when our shuttle was grounded.

Answer 3

Yup, we're all in it together. In fact if the space shuttle doesn't launch soon, they'll have to delay for a while because the Russians have a planned launch to the space station soon (I'm not sure if that's a manned mission or just an unmanned supply ship, though).

Answer 4

The International Space Station ISS is what it says in the box. INTERNATIONAL! The fact that NASA is launching the new ISS crew is no different to your pocket if Russia have done it... The ISS is an international project and funded by a few countries around the world.