"Jim Oberg" wrote in message
...
Dropping back into the atmosphere at Mach 25 is never 'routine'....
as still-unexplained events on the LAST Soyuz descent remind us.

msnbc.com (Oberg): Space crew weathers a scare during re-entry

Air leaked out of Russian descent module as it flew from station to Earth



Haven't you heard? Nasa is a 'faith-based' organization now.
We no longer have any need to ask questions of them.
We only need to have faith in them.

Here's what I have faith in. When oil reaches oh about
$150 a barrell in the next five years or so, and America is strangled
into depression, the public will want to know why in the ****
did this crumbling, incompetent, arrogant and scandal-plagued
administration, that is falling apart with Nixon-like speed, trash
the space solar power research the minute they came into power
in favor of a fanciful trip 'To the Moon and Mars"?

And no one even noticed?
No one asked why?

Our Texas oil man knows better, the minute he walzed
into office SSP died without discussion or notice.
We should have faith in President Bush and his
technological and philosophical decisions concerning
our future and that of Nasa. No way his oil background
or any oil special interests skewed his judgement.
No way! It was done for our own good. Not his.

No one asked why they recently took down the
Space solar power home page that's been up
for years. I suppose Nasa is afraid of any competing
ideas. Has anyone asked them why? No, of course
not.

They don't have to explain why they do anything.
That is the central theme of this administration.
Have faith in them. They wouldn't lie to us.

No, they are complete examples of virtue, we
should have complete faith in them, and the
plans they have for us and our future.

With the space business, investigative journalism is a thing
of the past.


Jonathan

s






http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9697668/

By James Oberg, NBC News space analyst // Special to MSNBC

Updated: 5:01 p.m. ET Oct. 14, 2005

Russia's Mission Control endured a brief but private scare during this
week's return of a Soyuz spacecraft from the international space station
with three riders aboard, those familiar with the flight now say.

As the Soyuz descent module headed back to Earth, instruments indicated
that air was leaking out - the same kind of failure that killed three
cosmonauts in June 1971 on their way home from the world's first space
station, Russia's Salyut 1.

Since that tragedy, all passengers aboard Soyuz spacecraft have worn
pressure suits during such mission-critical phases. Had Monday's air leak
been severe enough, the suits would have saved the men's lives.


Dangling strap to blame for scary space leak?

Russian space officials say 'rushed' crew failed to shut hatch properly

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9888881/

By James Oberg, NBC News space analyst // Special to MSNBC

Updated: 8:04 p.m. ET Nov. 1, 2005

Russian space officials are unofficially blaming the alarming pressure
drop during last month's landing of the Soyuz TMA-6 spacecraft on a
dangling
strap and crew error, MSNBC.com has learned. The Russian space agency's
draft report on the matter remains unsigned, however, according to the
NASA
safety official who provided MSNBC.com with a copy of the report.

The NASA official, who asked his name not be revealed, said that
"disagreements between the specialists and crew" still had to be resolved,
but that the Russians had shared the draft report in an e-mail to their
NASA
counterparts.

The pressure drop during the Oct. 11 landing is not a secret - both
Soyuz
commander Sergey Krikalev and passenger Gregory Olsen have publicly made
reference to the unusual event. But neither the U.S. or Russian space
agencies have offered any comment. The third man aboard the Soyuz as it
returned to Earth from the international space station, NASA astronaut
John
Phillips, has not referred to the matter, either.