bob haller wrote:
Anyone know why they decided that returning 3 crew aboard soyuz early on is a
bad idea? That fascinates me. No matter what the crew is stranded. Better to
get the life support load dropped ASAP.

Nop. The escape pod is there for a reason: in case of emergecy. A Shuttle
stranded at ISS isn't an "emergency" per say. They can stay there for quite
some time. But should there be a medical emergency, they need this.

Also, consider the progress crashing into Mir. It was the Soyuz that saved the
day because they were able to use it to re-orient the station so that solar
panels could produce sufficient power to reboot get station restarted
(especially computers that make the arrays track the sun for continued
electricity production.)