1. a) Who is Dmitry Rogozin?
b) What threat did he make to the U.S. this week? Why?

2. a) How much does the U.S. government pay Russia to transport our astronauts to the ISS?
b) Why do we have to do this?

3. a) What is SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s ultimate goal for space?
b) How is he funding this goal?

4. SpaceX filed a protest against the U.S. Air Force, in which the company claims that the military has unfairly prevented it from competing for space satellite launches. How does SpaceX explain their complaint?

5. SpaceX also raised the current U.S.-Russian argument over Crimea as a potential further reason the Air Force should reconsider its contract with the Boeing-Lockheed Martin unit. Re-read the 2nd to last paragraph of the article from SpaceX’s website in which the company implies that the government would be better off using SpaceX to transport our astronauts to the ISS. What challenges does SpaceX still need to iron out before it would be able to take over this role?

6. For each of the following statements, write agree or disagree and explain your answers.

1. President Obama shouldn’t impose any sanctions on Russia while our space program is at their mercy.
2. The sanctions against Russia are too tough.
3. The sanctions against Russia are not harsh enough.
4. The sanctions against Russia are the perfect strategy - we have them right where we want them.
5. The Russians are bluffing: they would not give up the money we pay them to transport our astronauts to space.
6. Russia’s potential decision to stop transporting our astronauts illustrates exactly why the U.S. should not hand over control of any of our projects to another country.
7. President Obama never should have let our space shuttle program end.
8. Handing over NASA’s space program to private companies is the best/worst thing the Obama administration can do.