Russia 'to postpone next manned space launch'
Agence France Press
Russia is set to pospone the next two manned launches for the International Space Station (ISS) for several weeks due to technical problems with the Soyuz spaceship, an industry source told Interfax Friday. The source told Interfax that the Soyuz TMA-04M vessel had not withstood tests to its pressure chamber ahead of the planned mission on March 30 and the first flight would be postponed to mid-April or the first half of May. "This re-entry capsule now cannot be used for manned spaceflight," the source said.
Report: ISS escape plan not good enough
30% chance crew may need to abandon ship by 2020, group warns
Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
NASA is not adequately prepared to evacuate the International Space Station in an emergency and should put in place “a fully-vetted, detailed procedure” so astronauts and cosmonauts can escape in Russian lifeboats, an independent safety group reported this week. What’s more, there is “greater than a 30 percent chance” a crew might have to abandon ship between now and the planned end of outpost operations in 2020, and NASA is not adequately communicating that risk to the public or people in the agency. “One cannot escape the conclusion that the risk...is more than an outside possibility,” the Aerospace Safery Advisory Panel wrote in a report released during a week in which NASA is memorializing astronauts killed in the Apollo 1 launch-pad fire and the Challenger and Columbia shuttle accidents.
Solemn
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