Also docked to the space station is SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule that ferried four astronauts to the ISS in March, and a Russian Soyuz capsule that delivered three others in September. Stich acknowledged that at least one of those vehicles could provide an alternative ride home for Wilmore and Williams.

joker-amerikkklap

  • Azarova [they/them]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    79
    ·
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    I’d trust a Soyuz with my life over any privately made corner cutting spacecraft any day, fuck that. Outsourcing spaceflight to the private sector always seemed like asking for all sorts of trouble.

    • someone [comrade/them, they/them]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      46
      ·
      edit-2
      4 months ago

      Soyuz’s design is good, including the Soyuz-2 carrier rocket, the crew vehicle called Soyuz, and the Soyuz-derived uncrewed cargo vehicle called Progress. But there have been major quality control issues over the past decade on all three. Propellant leaks, coolant leaks, a failed booster that caused an in-flight abort of a crew flight, holes in vehicles, all sorts of issues. And Salyut-derived ISS modules have had their own issues, such as Nauka’s uncontrolled thruster firing after docking to the ISS which sent the whole station into an uncontrolled slow spin until it ran out of thruster fuel.

      I respect the work of Chief Designer and his colleagues during the USSR era but I have little faith in Roscosmos’ QA.