Starship Asterisk*

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080514.html

if there is ever a war, economic or military, between the two major participants of the ISS mission, will there be continued support of the supply ships despite either numbnuts leader stupidity, no matter the political situation ?

The problem, of course, is that war can be defined to occur when diplomacy between adversaries breaks down.

Even if there were some treaty or diplomatic protocol which covers this, such agreement probably would not be worth one heck of a lot.

Given how much of the US's military capability depends on various space assets, I would doubt that the US would consider a Russian space launch during periods of hostility to be a benign event. I expect the reverse situation to be much the same.

For economic "war", I would hope that reasonable people on both sides would realize that the ISS and support missions thereto have close to zero influence on economic competition in any near- or medium-term timeframe.

Just my $0.02

You have just defined another very good reason not to have a war, Wolf.

-Noel