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Russian Cargo Ship Docks At ISS, Preps For Tourist

Posted by Zonk on from the back-to-business dept.

christchurch writes "Russia unmanned cargo ship Progress M-54, carrying food and supplies, docked at the International Space Station safely yesterday. A two-man replacement crew is scheduled to head to the station on 1st of October, along with an American scientist-businessman, Gregory Olsen, who is paying the Russian space agency $20 million for a weeklong visit."

11 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. UNMANNED? by s388 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    the russians have unmanned cargo spacecraft?

    and one just docked successfully with the ISS?

    do i live under a rock?

    i think i'm impressed.

    i suppose umannedness eliminates all logistical problems of life support on a craft bound for the ISS, but still i'm impressed.

    1. Re:UNMANNED? by Cruithne · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not to slight Russia, but with all of their economic troubles, its troubling that their space program is comparable to ours in many ways... and in some cases, like this one, actually ahead.

      I wish the American public had some national pride and a desire to explore :(

    2. Re:UNMANNED? by bogaboga · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Like I contributed some time ago, "never trust the Russians." These guys are technologically gifted. They achieve so much with very little, and with no fanfare at all. If it were we the Americans, all major networks would be carrying this story as if we have no troubles of our own.

      There was a saying that if the Russians had not participated in the ISS. I will never forget the day I came up-close to an Antonov-124. I have never seen a bigger aircraft.

      Years when the US air-force was trumpeting the stealth fighter as unstoppable, the Russians said there is nothing that takes in air and dissipates heat that cannot be detected. This was proven when one of our fighters was downed in the Balkan's war. The air-force attributed the downing to a technical fault. Of course this was not correct.

      There is also this piece: When time came to retire the MIR, we put a spin on where its fragments would fall - mostly negative. But not only did MIR's fragments land in the correct spot, they landed with an accuracy we as Americans can only dream of for an un-manned craft. There is so much these guys can do. I wish we could emulate some of their achievements.

    3. Re:UNMANNED? by khellendros1984 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      In fact, it's ludicrous not to be able to expect both manned and un-manned space veh....I think I'll shut up now....

      --
      It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
    4. Re:UNMANNED? by JourneyExpertApe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There was a saying that if the Russians had not participated in the ISS.

      You left off part of that sentence. It should read, "... then we wouldn't have rich assholes up there performing pretend experiments and advertising their companies on government property that cost billions to build."

      --
      If you can read this sig, you're too close.
    5. Re:UNMANNED? by tftp · · Score: 2, Insightful
      it's very likely that the aircraft was only clipped in one of the wings by a SAM or artillary fire.

      SAM warheads don't hit the target "head on". Instead they explode near the target, and then the schrapnel downs the airplane. This approach was used as early as World War II. The F-117 could be mostly intact, with the only exception of one little hole where it mattered.

  2. The other governments must be peeved by confusion · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, Russia is having to pay to get him there, but Russia is pretty much treating this multi-national scientific endeavor as a high priced hotel. Why not let Hilton or someone pop for a hotel module and start funding some of the space program, since there doesn't seem to be a shortage of millionaires wanting to go to space. Maybe then we could fix the hubble or some other meaningful science.

    Jerry
    http://www.cyvin.org/

    1. Re:The other governments must be peeved by rtaylor · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes, Russia is having to pay to get him there, but Russia is pretty much treating this multi-national scientific endeavor as a high priced hotel.

      Provided the Russians continue to send up people capable of doing the job, why do you care about the employee selection process? These people are fully trained and capable of doing the work necessary during their stay.

      NASA has also sent up plenty of people to political reasons, but since they performed the assigned tasks while there I don't think we can complain too much.

      --
      Rod Taylor
    2. Re:The other governments must be peeved by tftp · · Score: 2, Insightful
      It's a free market - someone offers a service, someone offers the money - deal. What's wrong with that? Russia definitely can control who boards its spacecraft, and it owns a good deal of ISS share(s), and besides, none of that is done over standing objections of other partners.

      I'm sure NASA is welcome to send a tourist or two on one of its shuttles... not that any are expected now, not any time soon at least, from what I read these days. It might even be that the Shuttles will never fly again. The STS program depends on thousands of highly skilled people to prepare the vehicles, and if those people are not working on a Shuttle they eventually forget how the job is to be done, drawings are lost, work instructions misunderstood, people die, retire or just quit. It's hard for anyone to wait a whole year for one launch, but that's what the current schedule looks like. And without those technicians the Shuttle can't take off. We are witnessing a rapid decay of the whole STS program, with recent flight not just failing to stop the process but actually accelerating it.

  3. And ? by gaanagaa · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And they say Russians are cheap? These guys are the live-wire for ISS. U.S, who claim the most of ISS are reluctant to launch a shuttle after Katrina. I dont see reason. Russians whose economy is much on the brink are doing the save-the-day-job for the ISS. I think U.S never thanked Russia for their support in the project-ISS and the fact that Russians are feeding those abandoned astronauts in the ISS.

  4. Re:We Look Like Ants by IgnoramusMaximus · · Score: 2, Insightful
    TrollMods just keep blasting away. Why not post a counterargument? Because doing so would reveal my original post is no Troll, but rather a cogent criticism, composed of facts and logic? And that TrollMods have no argument for that? I thought so.

    I'll bite. I am in a charitable mood today.

    The most probable reason is that they considered your "contribution" to be so far out as to not warrant a reply. While there are wacky moderators here, trolls are far more numerous. And then there is the particular species of American-centric troll who believes that the whole world (and possibly the Universe itself) is/was/is-to-be saved from doom at US taxpayers expense, had divine US knowledge granted to them (and thus all their pitiful attempts at technology or science are "stolen" or "derrivative"), and generally mooched off the oh-so-benevolent US taxpayer tit, followed by being belligerently ungrateful snakes who refuse to acknowledge the Divine Light bestowed upon them by the inhabitants of the Chosen Land of the US of A. Or something along these lines.

    Point in case: the US taxpayer was not funding the Russian space program to any significant degree. There was contract work done on many things, like long-term zero-g habitiation components of ISS with which NASA had next to zero experience. Russia is involved in many commercial ventures, some of them funded indirectly by the US government but that is because ... they are the best bang for the buck. US taxpayers are actually saving money on those deals (like for example the various payload agreements and lauch facilities use deals). The total amount spent on all of that stuff is about 4-5 shuttle launches worth over the last decade.

    Russians are actually at this point sustaining the NASA's ISS activity by ferrying US astronauts to and from the station at no charge, way past their original obligation, ever since the Shuttle is effectively kaput.

    There, perheaps this should clarify a thing or two.