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del.icio.usSoyuz crash shows need for reliable space ferry
BY ROBERT S. BOYD
McClatchy Newspapers
The Russian Soyuz transport vehicle dropped into a burning field of grass, 240 miles off course, in Kazakhstan. The crew, shaken but unhurt, saw flames approaching when they opened the spaceship's hatch. They slammed the door shut, but their landing parachute burned up before local farmers helped them out.
Before the parachute opened, the capsule "came down like a bullet out of a rifle," William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space operations, told the House of Representatives space subcommittee on Thursday.
This was the second time that the Soyuz landing capsule -- the part that carried the crew, which included American astronaut Peggy Whitson -- failed to separate from its power module when it left the orbiting space station. That failure put the capsule in free-fall, instead of a controlled glide to earth, with its precious heat shield facing the wrong way. The cause of the malfunction hasn't been identified.
Whitson said the descent was "pretty, pretty dramatic. Gravity's not really my friend right now."
"The fact that the same problem occurred in two vehicles is a cause for concern," Gerstenmaier said. "The Russians are as concerned as we are. Before we use Soyuz again, we need to understand the problem."
The near-disaster dramatized NASA's need to find a way to ferry people and cargo to the space station after the last U.S. space shuttle flight is completed in 2010. NASA intends to replace the shuttle with its new manned spacecraft, Orion, but Orion won't be ready until 2016 at the earliest.
The six-year gap will have to be filled by Russian, European or Japanese spaceships, but only Russia's Soyuz is capable of carrying people. Another option, American-made commercial spacecraft, won't be ready to carry cargo for at least two years and astronauts for at least four years.
The space station is supposed to be completed in 2010, but it would be only a huge, expensive piece of space junk if it cannot be supplied with people and cargo.
"After assembly is complete and the shuttle retires, NASA's ability to rotate crews and supply the ISS will be impaired," Cristina Chaplain, a procurement expert at the Government Accountability Office, told the subcommittee.
