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NASA Plans Three More Shuttle Flights This Year
Lonesome Squash writes "The BBC are reporting that a new fuel tank is due to arrive on Wednesday that fixes the well-known problems with insulation loss. According to the article, administrators are hopeful that they will be able to "squeeze in three launches" this year. I guess they've lowered the bar enough that even the Shuttle program can slither over it. I can only be grateful that I'm not the poor chump who has to write their press releases."
NASA Plans To Push Back Three More Shuttle Flights This Year To Next Year
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
No, the last Soyuz capsule related deaths were in 2002.
Unmanned Soyuz craft keep failing (and Soyuz has killed a *lot* of ground crew). It's been luck that the manned missions have been the ones that didn't blow up. The manned craft have had many very close calls as well - nearly rolling off a cliff, breaking through a frozen lake, etc.
Overall, Soyuz and Shuttle have similar crew safety levels. Non-crew death totals, shuttle has a far better record. Soyuz is much cheaper.
I was watching this thing on TV about some guy named Hitler. Someone should stop him!
Exploration always results in new and unexpected advances in science. We explored all the land, were working hard on the oceans, and as soon as we can we should explore as far as we can reach from our planet.
I applaud NASA for doing their best with their limited budget, a reusable ship based on technology that has been successful in the past is exactly what they should be doing. They have a bad track record, they need to do a few safe missions to gain public support.
Its just too bad for them (although I couldnt be happier) that the private companies are going to steal the show.
That's actually rather an oversimplification --- the word 'Soyuz' actually refers to a whole family of spacecraft.
Firstly, there's the spacecraft themselves, the bits that actually get into orbit; these are all manned. The ones currently used as ferries to the space station is the Soyuz-TMA.
Secondly, there's the launch vehicles. There are loads of these. Manned flights typically launch on the Soyuz-FG. The accident you were talking about was a satellite launch atop the Soyuz-U launch vehicle. The last and only failure of a Soyuz-FG was in 1983, over twenty years ago, and was a launchpad fire where all the astronauts got out alive --- manned vehicles, of course, are built to much tighter tolerances than unmanned vehicles.