NASA worries about astronaut safety onboard Soyuz

William Atkins
Sunday, 18 May 2008 23:27

Science - Space

NASA is scheduled to launch STS-124 on May 31, 2008, as anothe assembly misssion to the International Space Station.

NASA officials state it is very unlikely that the launch will be postponed based on their concerns with the Soyuz.

However, they are considering not including Gregory Chamitoff with the STS-124 crew.

Chamitoff is scheduled to replace Garrett Reisman as a member of the International Space Station crew. If Chamitoff is eliminated from the STS-124 crew, then Reisman will return to Earth inside the space shuttle Discovery (along with its STS-124 crew) rather than coming home inside a Russian Soyuz space capsule.

Another option is to fly with Chamitoff but return both him and Reisman when Discovery returns to Earth, now scheduled for a landing at the Kennedy Space Center on June 12, 2008.

Besides Reisman, the other two Expedition 17 crewmembers currently aboard the ISS are RSA cosmonauts Sergey Volkov and Oleg Kononenko.

NASA states that, so far, the problem with the Soyuz capsules has not been identified. A problem with the manufacturing process or a design flaw has been mentioned as possibilities in causing the last two Soyuz TMA flights to return to Earth off course, through a ballistic trajectory.

According to the Orlando Sentinel newspaper (Florida, U.S.A.), Allard Beutel, NASA’s news director at the Kennedy Space Center, stated, “The bottom line is that if something in our discussion with the Russians indicates that there are issues on the international space station, then we would have to look at adjusting our operations.”

In addition, Orlando Sentinel space editor Robert Block reports that NASA is looking in all of its options. John Yembrick states, “There is prudent planning on NASA's part, but the issue is unlikely to impact the shuttle launch." [Orlando Sentinel: “Reliability of Russian Soyuz capsule concerns NASA”]

NASA managers are meeting Monday, May 19, 2008, for a Joint Prgram (JP) Flight Readiness Review (FRR) of the space shuttle Discovery and the STS-124 mission. During the FRR meeting, it is being reported, that the health and status of the Soyuz capsule currently docked at the International Space Station will be discussed.

A FRR meeting consists of all officials directly responsible for preparing a space shuttle for an upcoming STS mission. These people look into all issues and concerns for the mission, in this case STS-124, and conclude whether to stick by the current launch schedule or postpone for one problem or various specific reasons.

The Russian Soyuz TMA-12 capsule is currently docked to the ISS at the Pirs module. It was launched by a Soyuz FG rocket on April 8, 2008, and docked two days later, on April 10th, at the ISS. It carried Russian Federal Space Agency (RSO) cosmonauts Sergei Volkov (Expedition 17 commander) and Oleg Kononenko, (Expedition 17 flight engineer); and South Korean spaceflight participant So-yeon Yi.

The space shuttle Discovery and the crew of STS-124 are currently scheduled to take off on a construction mission to the space station at 5:02 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), on May 31, 2008.

Besides the space shuttle fleet, the Soyuz capsules are the only way to take astronauts to and from the International Space Station. With the retirement of the U.S. fleet in two more years, the viability of the Russian Soyuz fleet is of prime concern to all countries involved with the ISS.