What’s I say? This is what happens when you put all your eggs in the Russian technology basket and the basket falls apart.
Space station could be abandoned in November
Astronauts may need to temporarily withdraw from the International Space Station before the end of this year if Russia is unable to resume manned flights of its Soyuz rocket after a failed cargo launch last week, according to the NASA official in charge of the outpost.
Despite a delivery of important logistics by the final space shuttle mission in July, safety concerns with landing Soyuz capsules in the middle of winter could force the space station to fly unmanned beginning in November, according to Michael Suffredini, NASA’s space station program manager.
“Logistically, we can support [operations] almost forever, but eventually if we don’t see the Soyuz spacecraft, we’ll probably going to unmanned ops before the end of the year,” Suffredini said in an interview Thursday, one day after Russia lost a Soyuz rocket with an automated Progress resupply ship bound for the space station.
See also:
Will the Space Station be Abandoned?
International Space Station might be abandoned in November
Cargo Craft Loss Prompts ISS Concerns
NASA Sets Space Station Status Update Briefing for Monday
Roscosmos smarting after Progress loss
ISS crew safe despite supply failure: Russia, US
Matt Reed: After Russian crash, turn to the F-150 of American rockets
Progress Fails To Make Progress
Okay, so the Russian rockets are turning out to be piles of junk. Why can’t we launch the Progress cargo ship or the manned Soyuz capsule on top of the highly successful, dependable workhorse, Delta IV or Atlas V rockets? Where’s that old fashioned American ingenuity?
/and what about SpaceX, they’re already planning a rendezvous mission to dock with the ISS later this year, why can’t resources be poured into that and the schedule moved up?
Filed under: Blog Entry | Tagged: Abandon Ship, Abandoned, Almost, Almost Forever, Astronauts, Automated, Automated Progress Resupply Ship, Capsules, Cargo, Cargo Launch, Concerns, Eventually, Failed, Failed Cargo Launch, Final Space Shuttle Mission, Flights, Fly, Fly Unmanned, Force, Forever, Important, Important Logistics, In Charge, International Space Station, Interview, ISS, Landing, Launch, Logistically, Logistics, Lost, Manned, Manned Flights, Michael Suffredini, Middle, Middle Of Winter, Mission, NASA, NASA Official, National Aeronautics And Space Administration, Operations, Ops, Outpost, Program Manager, Progress, Progress Resupply Ship, Resume, Resupply Ship, Rocket, Russia, Safety, Safety Concerns, Soyuz, Soyuz Capsules, Soyuz Rocket, Soyuz Spacecraft, Space Shuttle, Space Station, Space Station Program Manager, Spacecraft, Support, Temporarily, Temporarily Withdraw, Unable, Unable To Resume, Unmanned, Unmanned Ops, Winter, Withdraw | Leave a comment »
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