Russia's Unmanned Capsule Misses Space Station

mikesd81 writes "Russia's unmanned cargo ship Progress 38 missed docking with the ISS and sailed right on by it instead of docking on autopilot. A telemetry lock between the Russian-made Progress module and the space station was lost and the module flew past at a safe distance. NASA said the crew was never in danger and that the supplies are not critical and will not affect station operations. There will be no other attempts at docking today, and the orbit of the module raises questions of any other attempts again. Packed aboard the spacecraft are 1,918 pounds of propellant for the station, 110 pounds of oxygen, 220 pounds of water and 2,667 pounds of dry cargo — which includes spare parts, science equipment and other supplies."

Comments

Re:It's time to deliver a space tug to the station

[socz]

So what happens when the space shuttles are all retired and we only have apollo-era capsules that we can send up with a breath-taking-fall-back-to-earth? Not dissing you, but the U.S. really bit the bag on this one. The shuttles are one of the best assets the U.S. has. Literally, no one else on earth has *anything* close to it. What a shame.

Re:Oxygen fuel and water aren't critical?

[NNKK]

It's called being prepared. The ISS is kept well-stocked and the loss of a single resupply run is expensive but not operationally critical.

Re:Can't believe they still use pounds

[Sir_Lewk]

What the fuck are you talking about? Pounds is debatable but kilograms always means mass. Things have mass in space.

If you are smart enough to think that you know the difference between mass and weight, then you sure as shit should be smart enough to know that kilograms is a measure of mass.