Astronauts and cosmonauts were slated to board the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft for a ride to orbit and subsequent docking with the International Space Station but that was prior to the loss of the unmanned Progress-44 freighter with a fiery crash in rural Siberia. The Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan will now fall silent as the Soyuz boosters now under intensive scrutiny. It was the first launch failure of the Progress since first launched in 1978.
Russia's federal space agency is a sole source provider of orbital taxi spaceflights to the ISS for American astronauts at the price of 63-million per seat. NASA ASTRONAUT DAN BURBANK has the next assigned seat in the now delayed Soyuz TMA-22 flight from the Kazakhstan launch pad. The launch failure will impact that LAUNCH MANIFEST to the International Space Station.
The source of the failure of the Progress-44 vessel has been linked to the third stage of the Soyuz-U. The third stage is identical to that used in the Russian human-rated Soyuz boosters. No manned launches will be allowed until a special investigating commission completes its work, which may take a month or more, says one NEWS REPORT FROM RUSSIA.
Additionally Russian space authorities have put off the launch of a new Soyuz-2 carrier rocket from the Plesetsk Space Center in northern Russia for the beginning of September, the commander of Russian Space Troops, Gen Oleg Ostapenko said Thursday in the wake of the loss of the Progress-44 cargo freighter spacecraft.
On the other hand, the Soyuz-2 maiden flight from EUROPE'S SPACE BASE IN KOUROU, FRENCH GUIANA will go ahead as scheduled on Oct. 20, 2011 says Arianespace in A REPORT.
