Quick Turn Around For Soyuz Launcher
Пуск ракеты-носителя «Союз-ФГ» с пилотируемым кораблем #СоюзМС10. Видео с бортовых камер pic.twitter.com/ijPnwbbS4i
— РОСКОСМОС (@roscosmos) November 1, 2018
U.S.-Russia space partnership has had its ups and downs, but failed launch might end up helping, LA Times
“For more than 20 years, NASA’s relationship with Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, has been the model of post-Cold War reconciliation between Washington and Moscow. Those ties only grew deeper in 2011, when the U.S. retired its fleet of space shuttles and Russia’s Soyuz rocket, a design that dates to the 1960s, became the sole means of reaching the $100-billion space outpost. This marriage between the two space programs has weathered the atmosphere of distrust that now permeates U.S.-Russia relations. Across the field of bilateral ties between Moscow and Washington, only space exploration has succeeded in staying above the fray. But when evidence arose that the hole in Soyuz was deliberately drilled, that resilience was put to a test.”
Russia to hold 2 new space launches in wake of Soyuz failure, UPI
“The quick turnaround of getting the Soyuz back to space quickly comes from the need to relieve the crew currently manning the ISS. After NASA shut down its space shuttle program in 2011, the Soyuz has been the only delivery method for astronauts going to or leaving the floating space station.”
I can’t believe it’s been seven years since the US had a domestic way to send astronauts into space. There should have been a craft ready to fly within a year or two (at most) after the Shuttle’s retirement.
Thank Dr. Griffin for replacing OSP with Project Constellation and President Obama for then killing Constellation off.
Oh, no, not THAT again!…
There wasn’t enough money in NASA’s budget to start building hardware for a new program for crew transfer while the Shuttle was still flying. They needed to lay off the Shuttle contractors first. (Note that nobody in civil service got laid off, despite many having nothing to do.)
Quote: “”It appears to be a “fairly straightforward assembly error they made as they put the rocket together,” said Wayne Hale, who served as NASA’s former space shuttle program manager. “It doesn’t have anything to do with the basic design.”It appears to be a “fairly straightforward assembly error they made as they put the rocket together,” said Wayne Hale, who served as NASA’s former space shuttle program manager. “It doesn’t have anything to do with the basic design.””
The design is poor if an assembly error can be made.