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Russian Rocket Fleet Grounded Again
Velcroman1 writes "Failed pressure chamber tests have forced Russia to postpone two manned launches to the International Space Station — echoing a 2011 situation that left the country's space transport vehicles grounded and led to speculation that scientists may be forced to abandon the orbiting space base. Six astronauts are currently aboard the ISS including two Americans: Commander Dan Burbank and Flight Engineer Don Pettit. 'There is plenty of margin for the current space station crew to stay onboard longer, if necessary, and plenty of margin in our manifest for upcoming launches,' a NASA spokeswoman said. But Soyuz issues are scary nonetheless. 'This re-entry capsule now cannot be used for manned spaceflight,' an unnamed source told Interfax."
is exactly what I as talking about when people said we could save money grounding the fleet and use Russian launch capabilities.
We can do two wars at a time, but not two launch systems. That has always pissed me off.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/328095.html
Consider the source - Itar-Tass is probably Russian for "Fox News"
Back before the walls came down Tass was the mouthpiece of the Kremlin. If Tass is saying something then it's with the full support of Putin.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Alexei Krasnov, chief of piloted programs:
"The malfunction was found in the service elements of the descent capsule....but no decision was taken to delay a forthcoming launch.
Krasnov acknowledged that several days ago some problems really emerged....but the problems are related to a service element, rather than the descent capsule,
Krasnov did not rule out that “the schedule of piloted missions will be revised,” but he sees no tragedy in this. “There are program reserves to deal with the emerged problem,” he underlined.
“It is very good that upon the results of the tests we received critical remarks before the spaceship was brought to the Baikonur spaceport, because we have some time and possibilities to examine everything in detail,” Krasnov concluded.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/328095.html
One simple rule for its versus it's
The title of this story is misleading. It isn't the rockets that are grounded, its the spacecraft that sits on top of them.
Also, for what it's worth, the shuttle wouldn't have been help matters much if the Russian's can't fly a Soyuz. While the shuttle is fine for swapping crews (in fact, the shuttle's runway landings are gentler than the Soyuz's parachute landings, a good thing for people who have spent the last six months in 0g), the shuttle can only fly a two week mission, meaning without a Soyuz attached to the station, we'd have to leave people in orbit without an immediate way home, a risk that neither NASA nor Roscomos is willing to take. The Soyuz itself is only rated for six months in orbit, giving them a limited window to fix the problems before we have to talk about unmanning the station.
#include <signature.h>
S'OK. We'll have a manned moon base by 2020. And it'll be a 51st state.
By "state" I assume you meant province. And by "51" you meant 23rd (or 24th depending on how you count Taiwan). ;-)