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  • More Soyuz trouble

    Soyuz update -

    The air leak is in the Soyuz spacecrafts descent module, the center section used as the command section and to return its crew to Earth. This would be a fatal flaw.

    There are 2 suspected causes: either it was cast from a faulty batch of metal, or during earlier pressure tests it was pressurized beyond the 1.5 atmospere limit - perhaps as high as 3.5 atmospheres.

    Late info from Russia is that because no completed Soyuz is available they may have to remove the existing Soyuz from it's launcher, separate its 3 modules, replace the faulty module, reassemble the spacecraft and re-integrate ot to the launcher.

    Link....

    Soyuz probe might shake up ISS plans

    CAPE CANAVERAL —

    An investigation into a Soyuz spacecraft test failure could prompt delays in the launches of new crews to the International Space Station, but officials expect to maintain full staffing on the outpost nonetheless.

    The six astronauts and cosmonauts now aboard the station all launched about two months later than initially planned. So their stays can be extended, officials said. The Soyuz spacecraft they flew to the station are certified to remain at the outpost through May and early July, respectively.

    "We're not expecting any huge rush to get them back," Kelly Humphries, a spokesman for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, said Monday.

    A Soyuz spacecraft being readied for the planned March 29 launch of U.S. astronaut Joe Acaba and two Russian cosmonauts -- Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin -- malfunctioned during a recent pressurization test in an altitude chamber at Energia Space Rocket Corp. in Moscow.

    Alexei Krasnov, chief of human spaceflight with the Russian Federal Space Agency, told Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency that a committee was formed to determine the severity of the problem.

    He did not rule out the possibility of delays in the March 29 launch or another now scheduled for May 30. Krasnov said decisions on the launch schedule could be made as early as this week.

    Humphries said NASA officials "are working with our Russian partners to determine what happened."

    "It's too early to know whether this will impact our schedules."

    U.S. astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Akihiko Hoshide of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are scheduled to blast off on the May 30 flight.

    The Soyuz trouble is the latest to hit the Russian aerospace industry. A series of rocket and spacecraft failures have plagued the industry over the past 13 months.

    The station would have been temporarily evacuated late last year had an investigation into an Aug. 24 Soyuz rocket failure dragged on. Astronauts and cosmonauts would have had to return to Earth to avoid exceeding 200-day Soyuz orbital lifespans.

    The U.S. retired its space shuttle orbiter fleet last July. Russian Soyuz rockets and spacecraft are now the only vehicles capable of transporting astronauts and cosmonauts on round trips to the station.

    NASA is investing in the development of commercial space taxis, but those craft won't be ready to fly until later this decade. The U.S. will pay Russia more than $1 billion between now and then to fly American and partner-nation astronauts to and from the station.
    Last edited by Dr Mordrid; 31 January 2012, 08:18. Reason: I
    Dr. Mordrid
    ----------------------------
    An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

    I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

  • #2
    Hearing now that the flight is going to be delayed 30-45 days, more likely the latter. This will delay all ISS ops as flight schedules get adjusted to the right.

    We just have get commercial crew going, fast
    Dr. Mordrid
    ----------------------------
    An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

    I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

    Comment


    • #3
      The state of space travel has really gone downhill lately. NASA no longer launches personell into orbit. Russia can't launch anything that won't blow up. China is still way behings. SpaceX is still has a way to go before putting people into orbit.

      How times change. Hopefully the private sector will pickup where governments are failing.
      “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out”
      –The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

      Comment


      • #4
        Bush said in 2004 we'd be back on the moon by 2015. Highly unlikely. Like Jammrock said space travel is in decline. If this continues ISS will have to be evacuated.

        Comment


        • #5
          Congress never funded Constellation properly, and the porkers in the Senate made sure it would be built in their districts even if that meant it would never be finished. Then too, NASA admin. Griffin pursued a rocket design for crew based on shuttle SRB's even though it never met most of its performance milestones. Even then, before $$$$ vibration damping mods it would have turned the crew into a puree. Seriously.

          AND.... In the early 90's HL-20, what is now Dream Chaser, was canceled along with its big brother HL-42 which had a decent sized payload bay. They were to replace the shuttle but noooooo.... shuttle supporters in Congress couldn't have that as their districts would have to adapt.

          Then there was Venture Star - killed just as its subscale flight version was almost done.

          Cluster f***.
          Last edited by Dr Mordrid; 31 January 2012, 17:05.
          Dr. Mordrid
          ----------------------------
          An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

          I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

          Comment


          • #6
            Do you think ISS might get evacuated if this continues?

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            • #7
              Right now it has a full crew of 6, and the longest serving crew members have about 60-65 days left in the service life of the Soyuz vehicle they went up on. As long as this Soyuz makes it up by then (estimates are 30-45 days, but who knows?) then a full crew should be OK. If not then those 3 would have to come home and ISS would run on a crew of 3 until the next flight could be mounted - maybe June/July. Not much would get done besides maintenance.

              This is really getting to be a helluva mess. Earlier today the Russians told AFP that up to 60% of the chips in Phobos-Grunt were either counterfeit or not space qualified -translation: they weren't radiation hardened or vacuum sealed. W-T-F ?!?

              That, and the Proton SES-4 (comsat) flight postponed by a bad Breeze-M upper stage Dec. 26 has been postponed again, rumor being the first stage has developed a fault.

              /sigh/
              Last edited by Dr Mordrid; 31 January 2012, 20:46.
              Dr. Mordrid
              ----------------------------
              An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

              I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

              Comment

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