It just occurs to me that even if we continue to fly the Shuttle through “the gap” that doesn’t really solve the problem of actually utilizing the station. We are currently planning on relying on dual Soyuzs (what’s the plural of “Soyuz”?) for “lifeboat” capability to allow a six-person crew after completion. If the US is not purchasing Soyuz, we wouldn’t be able to leave Americans on board permanently, unless we wanted to risk losing them in emergency. It seems unlikely that this would actually play out politically, but if there were only one Soyuz there while the Shuttle wasn’t, it would be a Titanic situation, with only enough escape craft for half the crew. Would the Russians just say, “dos vedanya…”? The OSP was supposed to serve in that function, but it was cancelled when the VSE came along.
What a policy Charlie Foxtrot.
I’ll bet that you could find volunteers in the astronaut office, though.
We are currently planning on relying on dual Soyuzs (what’s the plural of “Soyuz”?) for “lifeboat” capability to allow a six-person crew after completion.
Yeah, really. Shuttle or no shuttle, the space station will make us crawl back to Russia for more flights, despite their violation of Georgia and their nuclear helping hand to Iran. What about our promises to international partners, I was asked. It’s disgusting.
At least Burt Rutan and Elon Musk never said that Vladimir Putin is a friend you can trust.
Volunteers for what, ISS duty? They’re having a hard enough time finding people who will agree to spend half of the next 4 years of their lives in Star City, traveling around the world, and then another six months….well, traveling around the world again.
Star City wouldn’t be an issue in this future. Training will just be in Houston…
How long can SpaceX’s Dragon park on the ISS? Could it serve as a 6-7 person life boat?
I doubt the NASA brass would want to have anything to do with a manned version of Dragon. You have it parked at ISS and then the congress critters might start asking questions like: “Well if we already have this capsule working why do we need to build another (Orion) from scratch?”
“Well if we already have this capsule working why do we need to build another (Orion) from scratch?”
Because Orion is needed to go to the moon.
How long can SpaceX’s Dragon park on the ISS? Could it serve as a 6-7 person life boat?
Who knows? It depends on the final design.
Time to dust off Project MOOSE, eh?
>> tps wrote:
>> I doubt the NASA brass would want to have anything to do with a
>> manned version of Dragon. ==
Oh hell yeah, course theres no real diffreence between the maned and cargo version, except yuo install the escape tower.
>>– You have it parked at ISS and then the congress critters might
>> start asking questions like: “Well if we already have this capsule
>> working why do we need to build another (Orion) from scratch?”
They are already asking. So is the GAO. Given the tens of bilions for Aries/Orion, vrs the hundreds of milion spent to develop Falcon/Dragon – its kind of a embarasment.
> Rand Simberg wrote:
>
> Because Orion is needed to go to the moon.
So the reason for congress not to dup Orion/Aries is so they can tie themselves tighter to the $170+ billion return to the moon program, now scheduled to reach the moon in the early 2020’s? Thats just not seeming like a compelling motive for congress.
Rand Simberg wrote:
>> How long can SpaceX’s Dragon park on the ISS? Could it serve as
>> a 6-7 person life boat?
>
> Who knows? It depends on the final design.
Its scheduled to start flight tests in under 2 years, haven’t the reqs been layed out yet?
Anyway if its Dragon vrs Soyuz — or no life boa5t vrs Soyuz, I think Soyuz is the less acceptable option in congress.
George Skinner wrote:
“Time to dust off Project MOOSE, eh?”
That would be cool, but there’s a danger it would become Project ELEPHANTS (Extremely Large Emergency Personal Heatshield and Automated Navigable Trajectory Solution?).
Anyway; 2009, 2010, 2011, three years. Surely it should be feasible for US industry with the US government as a customer to come up with a straightforward capsule for three or four people only targeted at launch on an EELV to the ISS, staying docked for up to a year, and returning on either the Gulf of Mexico side of Florida in case of a ballistic return or on the Atlantic side in case of a nominal return?
If my desk is too messy to get things done I tidy it up first (lamest allegory ever? ^_^).