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US-Russian crew blasts off to relieve trio on space station
Source: Agencies |
November 15, 2011, Tuesday
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A RUSSIAN spacecraft carrying an American and two Russians blasted off yesterday from the snow-covered Kazakh steppes in a faultless launch that eased anxiety about the future of United States and Russian space programs.
The Soyuz TMA-22 lifted off as scheduled at 8:14am from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome to carry NASA astronaut Dan Burbank and Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin on a mission to the International Space Station.
The launch was delayed for two months after the crash of an unmanned Progress cargo ship in August. The failed launch raised doubts about future missions to the station, because the vehicle that crashed used the same upper stage as the booster rockets carrying Soyuz ships to orbit.
NASA had warned that the space outpost would need to be abandoned temporarily for the first time in nearly 11 years if a new crew could not be launched before the last of the station's six residents returned to Earth this month.
Russian space officials traced the Progress launch failure to an "accidental" manufacturing flaw and recalled all Soyuz rockets from space launch pads for a thorough examination. The successful launch of a Progress ship last month cleared the way for the crew to be sent off.
The crew said they trusted the Soyuz, a workhorse of the Soviet and then Russian space program for more than 40 years. "We have no black thoughts and are full confidence in our technology," Shkaplerov said before the launch.
The new crew will arrive just in time to keep the orbiting station manned. The three crew members currently aboard the station are scheduled to return to Earth next Monday. Another launch next month will give the station its normal crew of six.
Shkaplerov, 39, and Ivanishin, 42, are making their first flight into space. Burbank, 50, who will take over command of the space station, is a veteran of 12-day shuttle missions in 2000 and 2006. The three will remain in the space station until March.
Russian Space Agency head Vladimir Popovkin said the agency was recruiting women to become cosmonauts. Only one woman is now in training and Popovkin said he was determined to send her into orbit.
Even in the event of an engine failure, such as the one that led to the Progress crash in August, a Soyuz crew would be rescued by an emergency escape system. But further launch trouble would have prompted NASA to rethink the program, which now relies exclusively on Russian spacecraft after the retirement of the US space shuttle fleet.
The Progress crash was one of a string of spectacular launch failures that raised concerns about the state of Russia's space industries. Last December, Russia lost three navigation satellites when a rocket failed to reach orbit. A military satellite was lost in February, and the launch of the Express-AM4, described as Russia's most powerful telecommunications satellite, went awry in August.
In the latest failure, a probe intended to collect samples on Mars moon Phobos suffered equipment failure last week and is stuck in Earth orbit.
The Soyuz TMA-22 lifted off as scheduled at 8:14am from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome to carry NASA astronaut Dan Burbank and Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin on a mission to the International Space Station.
The launch was delayed for two months after the crash of an unmanned Progress cargo ship in August. The failed launch raised doubts about future missions to the station, because the vehicle that crashed used the same upper stage as the booster rockets carrying Soyuz ships to orbit.
NASA had warned that the space outpost would need to be abandoned temporarily for the first time in nearly 11 years if a new crew could not be launched before the last of the station's six residents returned to Earth this month.
Russian space officials traced the Progress launch failure to an "accidental" manufacturing flaw and recalled all Soyuz rockets from space launch pads for a thorough examination. The successful launch of a Progress ship last month cleared the way for the crew to be sent off.
The crew said they trusted the Soyuz, a workhorse of the Soviet and then Russian space program for more than 40 years. "We have no black thoughts and are full confidence in our technology," Shkaplerov said before the launch.
The new crew will arrive just in time to keep the orbiting station manned. The three crew members currently aboard the station are scheduled to return to Earth next Monday. Another launch next month will give the station its normal crew of six.
Shkaplerov, 39, and Ivanishin, 42, are making their first flight into space. Burbank, 50, who will take over command of the space station, is a veteran of 12-day shuttle missions in 2000 and 2006. The three will remain in the space station until March.
Russian Space Agency head Vladimir Popovkin said the agency was recruiting women to become cosmonauts. Only one woman is now in training and Popovkin said he was determined to send her into orbit.
Even in the event of an engine failure, such as the one that led to the Progress crash in August, a Soyuz crew would be rescued by an emergency escape system. But further launch trouble would have prompted NASA to rethink the program, which now relies exclusively on Russian spacecraft after the retirement of the US space shuttle fleet.
The Progress crash was one of a string of spectacular launch failures that raised concerns about the state of Russia's space industries. Last December, Russia lost three navigation satellites when a rocket failed to reach orbit. A military satellite was lost in February, and the launch of the Express-AM4, described as Russia's most powerful telecommunications satellite, went awry in August.
In the latest failure, a probe intended to collect samples on Mars moon Phobos suffered equipment failure last week and is stuck in Earth orbit.
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