Russian Supply Vehicle To ISS Burns

First time accepted submitter Oxford_Comma_Lover writes "The Russian cargo spacecraft 'Progress' developed problems and burned up in the atmosphere shortly after its launch at 1300 GMT. From the article: 'The Russian space agency said the Progress M-12M cargo ship was not placed in the correct orbit by its rocket and fell back to Earth. The vessel was carrying three tonnes of supplies for the ISS astronauts.'"

Comments

Re:I'm afraid this means vodka rationing, boys

[PopeRatzo]

If we really wanted, there are American companies that could send humans in space, with Dragon or Atlas, at the same level of risk of the Shuttle.

So far, there's not proof that an "American company" could even replicate the 1961 mission that sent Alan Shepard into space.

Maybe you should wait until a private corporation sends one single human into space and brings him back alive before making claims about what they can do. And it's not just a "matter of certifications" because if they wanted proof of concept they could launch from some third world country (where they'll probably end up building their craft anyway).

I think a lot of people overestimate private industry's ability to achieve safe human space travel.

Re:Second loss in a week

[TehHustler]

This is most likely a quality control issue, not a design issue which would have turned up in the last 40 years, you would think.