This is more a kerfuffle in the press than a real emergency: for about three hours today Russian mission control had problems communicating with either ISS or the Soyuz spacecraft that is on its way to it. Neither spacecraft was in any danger during the down time.
At least the Russians can still do this: At 2:09 pm (Eastern) today a Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off, carrying the next crew to the International Space Station.
Engineers say that the cause of the Russian rocket failure yesterday appears to have been a programming error.
Bad news for the Russian space industry: A Proton rocket, carrying three Russian Glonass navigation satellites (their version of our GPS) failed at launch, crashing into the Pacific.
Three astronauts from ISS landed safely in Kazakhstan this morning. Meanwhile, the next crew contingent passed its exams in Russia.
This week the Russians will give “final exams” to the main and backup crews for the next expedition to ISS.
Though NASA constantly rates its astronauts, it does not give them “exams.” This whole procedure (as well as how this Russian article is written) gives a nice flavor of the cultural differences between the U.S. and Russia.
Is this real, or a call for funding? The Russian space company Energia says it will begin work next year on nuclear engines for Russia’s space program.
Except for the failure to install a video camers, two Russian astronauts successfully completed a six hour spacewalk on ISS today, doing a variety of construction tasks on the station’s exterior.
The Baikonur space port: a movie set.
Because of damage sustained during the railroad trip from Russia to Kazakhstan, the Russians are flying in a replacement descent module for the Soyuz capsule scheduled for launch to ISS on December 13.
The December Soyuz flight to ISS will be delayed due to the damage the capsule received during its transport by rail to Baikonur.
The container used to ship a Soyuz capsule to Baikonur was damaged in transport. No word yet on the condition of the capsule, which was scheduled for a December launch to ISS.
