Jeff Findley wrote on Wed, 3 Oct 2018
06:55:37 -0400:

In article ,
says...

Jeff Findley wrote on Tue, 2 Oct 2018
06:27:21 -0400:

In article ,
says...

The Shuttle doing US crew exchanges reduced but did not eliminate the
need for Soyuz. They still needed "escape pod" seats, they owb seat
liners and Sokhol suits and Soyuz training.


The Shuttle did ALL crew exchanges for the first two years or so that
ISS was manned. The first crew of three came up on a Soyuz, but it
was Shuttle all the way from there until November of 2002.


This is true.


I don't
believe we were ever set up to be escaping on Soyuz. I think the
assumption was that if there was an emergency they would be retrieved
by Shuttle. At one point we talked about developing an escape
vehicle, but it, like the hab module, was cancelled.


This is quite simply not true because NASA had to be prepared to
completely evacuate ISS. The shuttle could not be flown on a moment's
notice, so Soyuz always has been and remains to this day the only escape
capsule for ISS for all astronauts and cosmonauts.


Well, that's why I used words like "believe" and "think".

Yes you did. But it is standard practice on Usenet News for someone
else to correct you if you're wrong. That way other readers stay
informed.


Yes, it is. Unfortunately, it is also 'standard Usenet practice' to
be a little rude about it, even when 'correcting' something that has
been stated as uncertain.


When the shuttle was not docked at ISS, ISS had exactly the right number
of Soyuz capsules to completely evacuate ISS. Furthermore, every non-
Russian crewmember was trained in Russia on Soyuz. And more
importantly, every single ISS crewmember had a Soyuz crash couch liner,
which was essential for preventing injuries during the rather rough
Soyuz landing.

Check the shuttle manifests for ISS flights and you'll see Soyuz seat
liners. Here's an article which talks about the swapping of the Soyuz
seat liners, which is the official handing over during a crew swap:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-117

From above:
Shortly after welcoming the shuttle crew, station Flight
Engineer Oleg Kotov and shuttle Mission Specialist Clayton
Anderson transferred Anderson's customized Soyuz seat liner
into the Russian spacecraft in place of that of Flight
Engineer Suni Williams. The transfer marked the official
swap of Anderson for Williams as a station crewmember.

Soyuz seat liner swaps happened on every single shuttle flight which
rotated crew on ISS.


And when did they swap out the actual Soyuz? They're 'stale' after 6
months or so. And why did we have to start paying for 'rides up' if a
Soyuz had to be launched for evacuation purposes anyway? It costs the
same to launch one empty and throw it away as it does to launch one
with people in it and use it for crew return.


Because it was as much about sending money to Russia as it was about
"spaceflight. Here is a cite:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Soyuz_missions

And as you can see from the above page, US astronaut flights on Soyuz
actually started with shuttle/Mir (Soyuz TM-21 launched on 14 March 1995
with Norm Thagard aboard).


Well, we didn't have a space station then, so what else could we do?


US astronauts riding on Soyuz continued with
ISS even when the shuttle was flying. Just look at all those US flags
in the tables! I'm not going to take the time to count them all, but
there are *a lot*.


Yes, I said that elsewhere.


So yes, we've been paying Russia since the 1990s after the breakup of
the Soviet Union. It started to keep them occupied so they wouldn't
sell missile technology to other countries.


So you keep insisting.


--
"If it's the fool who likes to rush in.
And if it's the angel who never does try.
And if it's me who will lose or win
Then I'll make my best guess and I won't care why.
Come on and get me, you twist of fate.
I'm standing right here, Mr Destiny.
If you want to talk, well then I'll relate.
If you don't, so what? 'Cuz you don't scare me.
-- "Gunfighter", Blues Traveler