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Pat Duggins
Pat Duggins
Senior News Analyst
pduggins@wmfe.org


 

SOYUZ CONCERNS--

 

May 13, 2008—With the Space Shuttle’s retirement date about two years away, some Astronauts are wondering if NASA’s only way to the International Space Station is a 21st century version of the Edsel?

 

I attended the Kurt Debus Award ceremony at the Kennedy Space Center last month. The trophy is bestowed to someone in the local aerospace community whose leadership is considered especially noteworthy. Air Force General, and former Astronaut, Susan Helms received the honor for her work with the Patrick Air Force Base Space Wing.

 

Among those in attendance was former Astronaut Bill Readdy. I’d covered all three of his missions, which included the docking flight to the Russian Space Station MIR to retrieve Astronaut Shannon Lucid. The evening gave us a chance to catch up. Topic number one was the recent rough ride down for the outgoing crew of the International Space Station. Their Russian built Soyuz-TMA spacecraft malfunctioned, as this model has on three previous occasions. Instead of a gentle trip down through the atmosphere, the capsule plunged on a “ballistic” path, creating nine times the force of gravity on the people inside. Readdy was understandably concerned. NASA will be relying on the Soyuz, like the one pictured here, to carry crews to and from the Space Station after the Shuttle retires. Any design flaws in the Russian craft could mean big problems for NASA without its Shuttle fleet, and before the first flight of its new Orion crew capsule.

 

Later, when the crew of the upcoming mission of Space Shuttle Discovery visited the Kennedy Space Center for launch pad training last week, the Astronauts participated in a press conference. When asked what they’re big pre-launch concern was, Commander Mark Kelly responded “the Soyuz”. Obviously, this is going to be a story to watch over the coming weeks and months.

 

BTW, if you’re a devotee of YouTube-- a recent interview I did with former Channel 6 health reporter Charna Davis-Wiese for UCF-TV’s “Expressions” program wound up on the internet video site. The talk was about “Final Countdown”. If you like, here’s the link…

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv_lMXGFtFA

 

More to come...

 

Photo courtesy of NASA

 

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