Russian Space Agency May Send Rescue Craft To Space Station (washingtonpost.com) 61
The Russian space agency is deciding whether it needs to send a rescue spacecraft to the International Space Station to bring home two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut after the Soyuz capsule that brought them there suffered a massive coolant leak. The Washington Post reports: Working with their counterparts at NASA, officials at Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, are trying to determine if the vehicle is sound enough to bring the crew home, Sergei Krikalev, the executive director of Roscosmos's human spaceflight programs, said during a briefing Thursday. If not, the Russian agency would send up another Soyuz spacecraft that was to be used for another crewed mission to retrieve the crew. That spacecraft could be ready to fly up without any people on board sometime in February, a few weeks before the crew is set to return in March, officials said.
The crew that would fly home on the rescue craft would include NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and a pair of cosmonauts, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, who arrived at the station in September. Wayne Hale, a former NASA flight director and SpaceShuttle program manger, said he could recall of no other time when NASA or Roscosmos had been forced to consider sending up another spacecraft as a lifeboat to bring back a crew.
The crew that would fly home on the rescue craft would include NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and a pair of cosmonauts, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, who arrived at the station in September. Wayne Hale, a former NASA flight director and SpaceShuttle program manger, said he could recall of no other time when NASA or Roscosmos had been forced to consider sending up another spacecraft as a lifeboat to bring back a crew.
Lifeboat? (Score:1)
Wayne Hale, a former NASA flight director and SpaceShuttle program manger, said he could recall of no other time when NASA or Roscosmos had been forced to consider sending up another spacecraft as a lifeboat to bring back a crew.
Surely they considered that during the Apollo 13 mission. Maybe he was not around then.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That is what you get from misbehaving against your own population.
Treating them as second class citizens and labeling them terrorists so your own army can shoot at will.
Wait... are you talking about Russia/Ukrain or Republicans/BLM?
Re: (Score:2)
I thought the same thing... :-)
Re: Russia is there to stay, just get used to it (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
Go eat a dick vatnick nazi russia is a terrorist country that murders people and bombs civilian buildings and is going to lose the war in Ukraine
Re: Russia is there to stay, just get used to it (Score:1)
Wouldn't Vietnam be US's Vietnam?
Re: Russia is there to stay, just get used to it (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
I wonder how fast SpaceX could send a crew-dragon up if Roscosmos can not get there in time?
We could wonder how fast Russia can get the fuck out of Ukraine ...
Obviously, I'm talking about coercing Russia to stop their "war" and leave Ukraine to get their cosmonauts back, but don't really think he would care that much ... And by "war", I'm using Putin's own words from yesterday. From For first known time in public, Putin calls fighting in Ukraine a ‘war’ [cnn.com]:
“Our goal is not to spin the flywheel of military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war,” Putin told reporters in Moscow, ...
Several people have noted that Putin should either (a) now release all the people he's jailed for using that word or (b) be sent to prison for 15 years for violating his own law. I'm guess he'll ch
Re: (Score:3)
They did not for the simple reason that they could not. There was nothing anywhere near ready to go and the crew couldn't have lasted that long.
Re: Lifeboat? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Which they couldn't.
Re: Lifeboat? (Score:2)
I canâ(TM)t imagine how you would send a lifeboat to meet a craft on a free return trajectory from the moon, dock with a craft with another one you havenâ(TM)t even designed yet, transfer crew, and reenter. It might have been considered in the same way as they might have considered throwing some oxygen bottles by hand at the craft. That is, itâ(TM)s such a monumentally stupid idea it would be dismissed out of hand instantly.
Coolant (Score:4, Interesting)
I wouldn't drive my car if it had a coolant leak and that is a lot less life threatening that a space vehicle with a coolant leak.
I don't think the descent module of the space craft is affected however all the electronics of the guidance system in the service module would be starting to get nice and toasty considering ISS is sunlight for most of the time (IIRC) at this time of year.
I'd say they are having conferences at SpaceX right now about the viability of sending a crew dragon with a single astronaut on board to demonstrate the effectiveness of their broomsticks.
Re:Coolant (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm sure the last thing the Russians feel they need right now is for an American craft to show up and rescue a crew that got stranded due to a failure in a Russian craft...
Re:Coolant (Score:5, Funny)
I'm sure the last thing the Russians feel they need right now is for an American craft to show up and rescue a crew that got stranded due to a failure in a Russian craft...
Well... the second to last. The last would be a Ukrainian craft -- if only Ukraine had a space program. :-)
Re:Coolant (Score:4, Funny)
Shift some money around and I'm sure the Ukraine could finance a SpaceX rescue mission. They wouldn't even have to go through with it. Just make the offer publicly and watch it go viral as Russia insists on saying no.
Rescue (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Ukrainian's space program is making impressive progress - they've been launching tank torrents into the upper atmosphere for almost a year now.
Re: Coolant (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Since the service module is jettisoned after the de-orbit burn, it wouldn't have to last long.
Re: (Score:2)
I could see Russia using it for a try at returning stuff from the station without risking lives, they need some return capacity so they maybe able to turn it around and buy some valuable performance data about their space craft. I can't see why Russia would risk it with cosmonauts on board.
I'd be surprised if a return craft isn't being prepared, the loss of prestige is a big risk and a very big motivator.
Re:Coolant (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd say they are having conferences at SpaceX right now about the viability of sending a crew dragon with a single astronaut on board to demonstrate the effectiveness of their broomsticks
One, NASA already has a trip up to the ISS on-board a SpaceX ship in February. That is Crew-6 due up and they will be replacing Crew-5 who are on the ISS along with the other three that were mentioned in the article. So SpaceX already has their hands busy prepping for that but NASA can obviously short a seat to pull someone down if NASA absolutely needs to. Past that, as far as crewed SpaceX flights go, there's just Axiom and Polaris Down which are private and SpaceX ain't scrubbing billionaire payboy astronauts (yes, yes, I know those are actually people looking to do "something" commercial in space, but in reality they're just billionaires that really want to justify why their space flight is a tax write off. But you know what? That is indeed just my opinion) just to go rescue some people sitting on the ISS.
Two, SpaceX is a private company. They ain't running a charity. If NASA needs a boat to go up, NASA will call SpaceX about the matter. Till then, SpaceX is not about to go do a $60+ million freebie, ESPECIALLY for the US government. There isn't anything about their "broomsticks" they need to prove, they've got plenty of orders lined up for 2023 and they sure as shit aren't doing rushed order because they feel they need to "show up" someone.
Three, the folks on the ISS have plenty of supplies and aren't in any kind of immediate danger. There's plenty of supply ships on schedule to keep them happy in the meantime. Additionally, Russia has MS-23 going up in March. NASA and Roscosmos can hash it out how they want to get people down. If Crew-6 has an open seat and MS-23 has an open seat, then you've got two of the three up there taken care of, but again, they aren't in danger there's not really any massive rush to "take care" of them. NASA and Roscosmos can figure out how best to get them down, but the important part is, there isn't any rush to do it and no private space flight company is going to be stepping up to be on the hook for a multimillion dollar "rescue" mission when there's zero urgency.
Re: (Score:3)
they sure as shit aren't doing rushed order because they feel they need to "show up" someone.
Actually that's exactly the kind of thing Elon does.
Re: (Score:3)
He might call NASA a pedophile if they call him out for being wrong. Like with his stupid submarine idea.
Re: (Score:2)
A great gimmick would be top put a SpaceX capsule on Uber.
Re: (Score:2)
There's also the problem of not having the proper interfaces for the Russian pressure suits. Each suit is custom fit to the astronaut. SpaceX also uses touch screens which require special gloves.
If it was an Apollo 13-level emergency, I'm sure they could find a way (probably could just forgo pressure suits altogether and just lay on the floor of the current Dragon capsule with a ratchet strap across their chests), but nobody is in a rush. No need for unnecessary risks. They can wait for the best solution.
Re: (Score:2)
Two, SpaceX is a private company. They ain't running a charity.
True, it's also a good marketing opportunity, so it will be interesting to see what happens. I doubt they're ignoring the situation.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think the descent module of the space craft is affected however all the electronics of the guidance system in the service module would be starting to get nice and toasty considering ISS is sunlight for most of the time (IIRC) at this time of year.
The descent module is not affected. And (from recent reports) the service module's temperatures are high, but within equipment tolerances and mostly stable. Obviously they will need to continue to monitor the vehicle's condition.
Russia and NASA are doing what they always do, which is to make and evaluate plans which can be ready to go should they need to be executed, and, where possible, speeding up any preparations that have longer lead times (such as possibly getting the next Soyuz vehicle ready sooner)
Re: Coolant (Score:2)
Elon will be offering to send a submarine real soon now.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Isn't it more thanks to Russia? Unless you mean that Ukranians should have just let the Russians invade and not to fight back?
Time to scrap this silly project (Score:2, Redundant)
Space can wait. There is no urgency for the US to support a program of military value to the Russian Federation.
The US easily afforded a space program without Kremlin participation. The idea anything justifies legitimizing the invaders of Ukraine is absurd.
Re: Time to scrap this silly project (Score:3)
Agreed. Collaboration with Russia in space was a manifestation of developing peace between Russia and the West. Putin has abandoned that peace and made his animosity toward the West (via Ukraine) explicitly clear. Russian leadership is not interested in peace. The people of Russia may be, but the leadership is not.
Let's collaborate with ESA, India, JAXA, etc instead.
Rogozin shot in the ass (Score:4, Informative)
This may, of course, just be a coincidence. But Dmitry Rogozin — until very recently head of Roscosmos [spacenews.com], who once claimed, Americans will have to start using trampolines if they piss off Russia [nbcnews.com] — was shot in the arse by Ukrainians a few days ago [nasawatch.com].
Ukrainians claim aiming for the enemy's decision-making centers.
Re: (Score:2)
Ukraine doesn't seem to mind taking credit for putting some shrapnel in his ass. Their state border guard service's announcement is priceless:
The State Border Guard Service determined that Russian citizen Rogozin illegally crossed the Ukrainian border. We were unable to personally deliver the [written] protocol to the offender, which is why it was ‘handed’ to him during his birthday celebrations by concerned comrades.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/... [thedailybeast.com]
How does the money work? (Score:2)
Given the breadth and depth of the sanctions currently imposed on Russia I am amazed that they can even consider launching anything. They can't be getting everything they need from China, NK, and Iran.
Re: (Score:2)
They do have a domestic aerospace industry. They have kept it functional enough for regular launches past the collapse of the Union. They kept it functional all throughout the Soviet period, despite being under sanctions and behind an iron curtain the whole time.
Marooned (1969) (Score:2)
There was a good (IMO) 1969 movie named Marooned about the recue of 3 astronauts orbiting to see how the body handled extended weightlessness. Their retros malfunctioned and they couldn't initiate their deorbit burn.
Peck - Crenna - Janssen - Franciscus - Hackman