(Nicholas Fitzpatrick) writes:

In article , Manfred Bartz wrote:
(Nicholas Fitzpatrick) writes:

... Should they have sent up TMA-3 with a single astronaut, and
done an evacuation? (presuming the problem is fixed with TMA-3),
and then placed the new crew with TMA-4?

No, that is a ridiculous suggestion.

I think the mentality of calling questions ridiculous is the reason
that two of the Space Shuttles sit in Florida, in pieces! No
question in itself is ridiculous.

My apologies. You are right, no question is ever rediculous.
What I should have said is that such action (evacuation) would
be completely unjustified.

My first question is, does this meet NASA safety standards. Your
answer then, would be yes.

Actually, I don't know what NASA's position is on this. Since the
Soyuz is entirely under Russian control the question probably does
not arise.

Consider that NASA have their own safety issues as their shuttle
passes through a whole bunch of unrecoverable flight phases everytime
they fly it -- so NASA has no choice but to get those flight phases
100% right (or as close as possible).

I think that any capsule-based space transport system can be (and is)
inherently safer than the existing shuttle could ever be. Past
examples of this were Mercury, Gemini, Apollo. Currently we have
Soyuz and possibly Shenzhou. In the future we may have a capsule
based OSP (that name needs changing!).

--
Manfred Bartz