NASA Releases LEO Commercial Crew Certification Requirements

Commercial Crew Transportation System Certification Requirements for NASA Low Earth Orbit Missions
“This document defines the requirements, standards and certification package contents that will be used to certify a CCTS for LEO Missions. It will be the responsibility of the NASA Program Manager and Technical Authorities to determine the applicability of individual requirements and standards based on the DRM being certified and apply the Agency risk posture (for the DRM) to arrive at the final set of requirements and standards for certification. The Program Manager will then request Certification from NASA HQ per Agency policy.”
Keith’s note: I did a search of this document for the word “Soyuz”. The only time the word is used is in connection with accidents or problems with Soyuz. I wonder if Soyuz meets the requirements in this document – I certainly cannot find any evidence that it does. It certainly should meet these requirements since the U.S. has been buying seats on Soyuz for more than a decade – the very same seats you can buy commercially – the same seats NASA will be buying for years to come. Will NASA certify Soyuz according to the requirements in this document?
If Soyuz does not meet these certification requirements, then one has to ask why NASA is willing to waive requirements for a foreign crew transport system – with Americans on board – but levy more stringent requirements on American commercial systems – carrying Americans. It would also be interesting to see if the Ares-1/Orion configuration would have met these requirements as well.
Inconsistencies abound in this document – both in its intent – and its application (thus far).