Yesterday the Soyuz/Progress ISS resupply launch failed due to an upper stage malfunction.
Link....
Making matters worse is that there have been 2 straight failures of the Briz-M upper stage on their Proton rocket, the most recent being last week when a big telecommunications satellite was lost.
Because of there being so much commonality between Progress and Soyuz TMA launches, a prolonged investigation into these failures could delay both Soyuz TMA crew replacement and Progress cargo flights to the ISS. Fortunately the last shuttle flight took up some extra supplies, but the next Progress was also to take up needed new docking hardware.
There has been much concern the last few years about quality control slipping in the Russian program, and this isn't going to alleviate those concerns.
This ratchets up the pressure to get SpaceX's Dragon C2/C3 flight to ISS as soon as possible. Already plans have begun to put at least 800 kg of cargo on the Nov. 30 test flight to help make up for the Progress failure, with more possible.
Also being mentioned is the need for a Crew Dragon to get out of the barn ASAP as it's the closest crew ship to completion. This will require the Super Draco launch escape/landing thrusters, which start testing at White Sands soon.
It also highlights the importance of having multiple spacecraft available for both cargo and crew duties.
Link....
Making matters worse is that there have been 2 straight failures of the Briz-M upper stage on their Proton rocket, the most recent being last week when a big telecommunications satellite was lost.
Because of there being so much commonality between Progress and Soyuz TMA launches, a prolonged investigation into these failures could delay both Soyuz TMA crew replacement and Progress cargo flights to the ISS. Fortunately the last shuttle flight took up some extra supplies, but the next Progress was also to take up needed new docking hardware.
There has been much concern the last few years about quality control slipping in the Russian program, and this isn't going to alleviate those concerns.
This ratchets up the pressure to get SpaceX's Dragon C2/C3 flight to ISS as soon as possible. Already plans have begun to put at least 800 kg of cargo on the Nov. 30 test flight to help make up for the Progress failure, with more possible.
Also being mentioned is the need for a Crew Dragon to get out of the barn ASAP as it's the closest crew ship to completion. This will require the Super Draco launch escape/landing thrusters, which start testing at White Sands soon.
It also highlights the importance of having multiple spacecraft available for both cargo and crew duties.
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