Russia’s Science Fiction Space Mission

An amusing extract from the Guardian:

Space scientists in Russia are preparing to boldly go where no man has gone before, except for the actor Bruce Willis.

The head of the Russian space agency said today that it was considering a Hollywood-style mission to send a spacecraft to bump a large asteroid from a possible collision course with Earth.

So it looks like the Russian space agency is now run by Vladislav Surkov, who delivers his best story since 20,000 Leagues Under Lake Baikal with Vladimir Putin.

Is this just ironic, genius, stupid, or awesome?  I don’t really know.  But with the judo, the tiger hunting, the hip-hop, the Deep Purple concerts, and everything else, it sometimes feels like the siloviki use their powers of government to fulfill the fantasies of teenage boys.