The recent
failure of Russia's Soyuz-U rocket five minutes into its mission just ripped a hole in plans to rely on other countries to supply the International Space Station (ISS). Not that the U.S. has many choices right now while it waits for private cargo missions (see
previous article). The six astronauts on the ISS were awaiting these supplies, though NASA stated the station is well-stocked for now. This was the first failure of the Russian resupply missions in the last three decades and could not come at a worse time given the lack of redundancy in the space program. NASA is looking at all contingencies, including delaying the rotation of the crew. Russia was planning to ship up three replacement crew members in September. The US kept the shuttle program running just long enough to complete the ISS. It would be a tragedy if we find we cannot get back and forth to this $100 billion space station. The last thing we need is more space junk circling the earth. Keep your fingers crossed.
Update: An August 29th
news story noted Russia planned to delay the return of the current ISS crew (from September 8 to September 16) and delay the launch of a new crew (from September 22 to sometime in October or November). This is not a good sign. "If for any reason we will not be able to deliver the crew before the end of November we will need to review all possibilities, including leaving the station unmanned," stated the article quoting Alexei Krasnov, who leads the manned flights at Roskosmos.
Slate magazine had an interesting article titled "The Space Station Without Us." The positive news is the ISS can last in orbit for some time without us. The negative news is that the ISS would become a white elephant right at the point it is fully functional.
