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Russia’s space chief, Dmitry Rogozin, has persistently asked Elon Musk to visit him this fall.
[AresTechnica] The leader of Russia's space program is desperate to have Elon Musk visit him. On multiple occasions, Dmitry Rogozin has invited the founder of SpaceX to come to Kazakhstan for the October 5 launch of the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft carrying three Russians to the International Space Station.More recently, during an interview on CNN, Rogozin gained a fair amount of publicity when he invited Musk to visit his home in Russia. "We respect him as an organizer of the space industry and as an inventor who is not afraid to take risks," Rogozin said. Musk was welcomed "to be a guest of my family" and discuss "exploring the universe, extraterrestrial life, and how we can use space to preserve life on Earth." "I already set the teakettle on heat," he added. In a response on Twitter, Musk was noncommittal. It is a fool's errand to try to predict the actions of Elon Musk, but given his understandable security concerns, it's difficult to see the billionaire visiting Rogozin in Russia or attending the launch in Kazakhstan. One might even read an ominous intent in Rogozin's invitation. The "teakettle" comment recalls the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB officer who in 2000 fled to the United Kingdom after becoming critical of Vladimir Putin's rise to power. Six years after leaving Russia, Litvinenko was poisoned by drinking tea laced with polonium. He died three weeks later, and Western intelligence services eventually concluded that the poisoning was conducted by Russian agents acting under the approval of Putin. So Musk is probably not going to Russia. And he is probably not going to drink tea with Dmitry Rogozin. But it's nonetheless worthwhile to try to understand Rogozin's motivations for reaching out to Musk in this way.
Related: Dmitry Rogozin: 2020-05-05 Evgeniy Mikrin, General Designer of Manned Programs of Russia, died of coronavirus. ISS endangered. Dmitry Rogozin: 2019-05-04 Dmitry Rogozin has been fired as head of Roscosmo? Dmitry Rogozin: 2018-11-27 Russia space agency targeted over ‘stolen’ billions Related: Alexander Litvinenko: 2018-09-11 Are the Russian novichok hitmen already DEAD? New theory claims the men may have been executed to hide traces of the crime Alexander Litvinenko: 2018-03-08 Nerve Agent Used in Attack on Former Russian Spy in England Alexander Litvinenko: 2018-03-08 UK police: Russian ex-spy was attacked with nerve gas, Moscow suspected Related: Polonium: 2021-09-10 Putin and Lukashenko move to integrate economies of Russia and Belarus Polonium: 2021-08-29 US 'experts' who created Afghanistan mess should be fired for malpractice Polonium: 2021-08-19 Polish army deployed to Belarus border amid migrant surge Posted by: 3dc 2021-09-14 |
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