Soyuz for downmass

wrote in news:a74649e6-b8ed-4b4b-bebf-
:

Soyuz could be flown unmanned (or with a single cosmonaut) to the ISS
to provide downmass capability. (The volume is not big and its not
cheap. But then neither was the STS.)

Soyuz/Progress is on the way out:

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/ptk_z.html

It'll be a few years yet, and Dragon will likely already be in service,
but development of the replacement systems are already underway. Had
rational decision-making been in place during the 80s, Soyuz might
have already been replaced, both spacecraft and rocket with something
like Zenit and a "super-Soyuz" called Zarya.

At any rate, the new system will have substantially more room and
payload, both up and down.

--Damon, snowed-in in Seattle