Minor damage to Soyuz may delay space station trip

"Jacques van Oene" wrote in message
...
Msnbc (Oberg): Russian mishap threatens launch schedule

Minor damage to Soyuz may delay space station trip

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6010203/

By James Oberg, NBC News space analyst // Special to MSNBC
Syromyatnikov is a senior manager at the Russian rocket company
Energia
in Moscow, where he is head of the Department of Electromechanics and
Large-Size Space Structures. He has worked on Russia's piloted space
vehicles for 40 years, and was co-inventor of the androgynous docking
mechanism first used by the Apollo-Soyuz mission in the 1970s and now
standard for all U.S., Russian and Chinese piloted space vehicles.

Say what? Certainly, the androgynous docking mechanism was used on an
Apollo, a few Soyuz vehicles, and the shuttle. But I believe the only
crewed vehicle still using it is the shuttle. Unless I am mistaken, Soyuz
(and Progress) currently use the old SP&D (standard probe and drogue)
system. Russian modules on ISS seem to be using a combination of SP&D (to
accommodate Soyuz and Progress) and HP&D (hybrid probe and drogue).

As for the Chinese, have they really flown a vehicle with a docking
mechanism? They certainly have not performed any dockings in orbit.

So what's up with the statement that the androgynous docking system is
standard for all US, Russian, and Chinese piloted space vehicles?

Jeff
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