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| NASA Says Will Use Russia's Soyuz despite Rocket Failure |
| 2018-10-13 |
| [An Nahar] NASA chief Jim Bridenstine on Friday praised the Russian space program and said he expected a new crew to go to the International Space Station in December despite a rocket failure. "I fully anticipate that we will fly again on a Soyuz rocket and I have no reason to believe at this point that it will not be on schedule," he told news hounds. The NASA administrator spoke to news hounds at the U.S. embassy in Moscow a day after a Soyuz rocket failure forced Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin and U.S. astronaut Nick Hague to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff in Kazakhstan. The pair escaped unharmed. It was the first such incident in Russia's post-Soviet history -- an unprecedented setback for the country's space industry. The Soviet-designed Soyuz rocket is currently the world's only lifeline to the International Space Station and the accident will affect both NASA and the work of the orbiting laboratory. Bridenstine, who is visiting Russia and Kazakhstan for the first time since his appointment as NASA chief this year, observed the launch from Baikonur cosmodrome with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Rogozin. Appearing at times emotional, he said he was "confident" a new manned mission to the ISS would go ahead as planned in December, praising the "wonderful relationship" between the Russian and U.S. space agencies. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #7 "Showing Initiative" is not a Bureaucratic Virtue -- it is safer to follow established procedure even if you know its wrong. Besides, think of all the Roscosmos/ULA |
| Posted by: magpie 2018-10-13 19:22 |
| #6 The OPTEMPO is curious. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2018-10-13 14:26 |
| #5 NASA don't have a lot of alternatives in it's pocket. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2018-10-13 13:51 |
| #4 Those who died before led to these two surviving. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2018-10-13 13:43 |
| #3 It's a dangerous business. We've managed to blow up our own both coming and going, and our crews didn't survive. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2018-10-13 11:20 |
| #2 "Now if we only had our own" yes but perhaps commercial efforts will prove the more efficient route. Russia holds on fortunately but with old technology. China has serious debt issues much worse than our own. To weaken them I said let them spend, spend and spend. Islands, military, development projects many of which are sitting empty now. One child policy is having its negative impact now. Too many older people to support and fewer offspring to carry. In China children must support their elders. |
| Posted by: Dale 2018-10-13 08:31 |
| #1 Cause the Chinese ones are not much better. Now if we only had our own. /sarc |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2018-10-13 07:54 |