January 6, 2021 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Bob,
I have a more accurate count on the number of dockings to the aft port of Zvezda: 35 by Progress, 5 for ESA’s ATV and 59 Soyuz missions. I would say that a grand total of 99 dockings, but with the failure of docking Soyuz MS-14 on the Poisk module, they moved MS-13 to the Poisk port to allow MS-14 to use the KURS to dock in the aft. So the total known number of dockings to the aft module is 100.
That port has been used a lot!
Jay: Whoa! That is most illuminating. Thank you. I fear that stress is a factor here, and that the “equipment” the Russians are sending to ISS to fix the problem might involve some major repairwork. The Russians proved themselves very adapt at this with Mir, so there is no reason to lose hope.
Still, the situation is worrisome, as I am sure the Russians know.
So I am willing to bet there have been many more dockings to that port. When ESA launched their first ATV, I bet they did multiple dockings to test the mechanisms. Also were multiple docking tests done on the four variants of the Soyuz that visited the station: TM, TMA, TMA-M, and MS.
Probably a call to Houston can give you the real number.