Anyone else think that maybe the Russians aren't the best country to be sending stuff into space?

http://news.yahoo.com/russias-mars-probe-crash-earth-january-112402928.html

Because the U.S. has had an unblemished safety record when it comes to space travel right..?

There has always been a price to pay to explore space, both the US and Russia have found this out
the hard way. Its always a gamble, can only hope for the best.

Exploring Space is always a uncertain task regardless the country involved IMO

Well Beach, I can't remember having radioactive stuff possibly raining down on my house because of a failed orbit of an unmanned craft. Wasn't the Russians take on the declining orbit of the space station "Just let it fall to the earth, it's 75% water, everything will be fine". But don't worry, the Russians say the highly radioactive material on the craft isn't harmful to people.

It's not that we didn't have accidents in our program, we just are a little more honest about it. The Russians have always underplayed everything that might make them look bad. This is a country that told their people we didn't land on the moon. I'm saying when it comes to informing the public or the world for that matter, they don't have the best track record.

I'm actually half Russian, this is not racially motivated in case anyone was going to go there.

watched the right stuff when i was a kid, our space program required a death wish at one point.

I love most programs and movies on our space program. It's tragic, sad and uplifting all at the same time. From the Earth to the Moon was a great series IMO.

No, it didn't.

The "Right Stuff" is a movie and as such it played up the danger greater than it was. Yes the US blew up a lot of boosters etc learning to fly rockets, I imagine the Russians did too they just didn't do so on live TV. Ever hear of the "Nedelin disaster"? The official death toll according to the Russians is 78, but it was likely much higher. If you want to talk about a doomed from the start death wish mission just look up Soyuz 1.

The main reason Gagarin beat Shepard into space was due to the overly cautious nature of the US manned spaceflight program. Shepard was ready to go before Gagarin, but due to a minor glitch on a prior unmanned flight (that would not have effected a manned flight at all) the managers decided to postpone Shepard's flight until one more unmanned flight to could be flown. Meanwhile Gagarin flew and the rest is history.

As for Mars exploration, Russia has had a much worse record than the US. Russia/USSR has launched 19 mission to Mars, of those only 6 have been at best partial successes and all the rest have been absolute failures.

The US has also launched 19 missions to Mars (not counting the latest in process) and has had 5 failures.

Quote from the article:

"The failed mission was the latest in a series of recent Russian launch failures that have raised concerns about the condition of the country's space industries. Officials have blamed the failures on obsolete equipment and an aging workforce."

I'm a huge fan of space travel and exploration, but I have my own serious doubts about the state of the Russian space program. In this particular instance, however, it seems that Russian probes bound for Mars are simply jinxed. They have had a really hard time getting anything to Mars, and if it gets there it either disappears as it's about to go into orbit or shortly after.

As for the U.S. raining radioactive material back down on Earth from space...remember Skylab? That's only one example. There have been others. Space flight is inherently risky. It's not a matter of if there will be a failure, but when, mo matter who built the equipment.

Granted. But don't you think with "obsolete equipment and an aging workforce" your are drastically increasing the odds of failure and maybe shouldn't be shooting stuff into space? Skylab had a rough start but was a success and spent 6 years in orbit.