Crew size

Seems a bit of bad planning to allow the crew to get to just two for some
weeks soon to me. Is this just because there are no rides over the next few
months due to there being no spacecraft then?

So, one wonders, why are they bringing one person back now?. Then again, why
did they fly a tourist on the last mission, I guess one extra for a couple
of months would be a bit difficult, but then, they have said in the past
that Shuttle crews could use the station as a refuge if a Shuttle was
damaged.

Brian

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in the display name may be lost.
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I'm not seeing where you are getting only 2 crew for the station.


"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
...
Seems a bit of bad planning to allow the crew to get to just two for some
weeks soon to me. Is this just because there are no rides over the next
few months due to there being no spacecraft then?

So, one wonders, why are they bringing one person back now?. Then again,
why did they fly a tourist on the last mission, I guess one extra for a
couple of months would be a bit difficult, but then, they have said in the
past that Shuttle crews could use the station as a refuge if a Shuttle was
damaged.



--
Greg Moore
Ask me about lily, an RPI based CMC.

Assuming STS-29 launches on time on 16 Nov it will return to Earth on 27 Nov
with Nicole Stott. The Station crew will be reduced to five.

Then, when the Soyuz-TMA 15 crew (Romanenko, de Winne, Thirsk) return to
Earth on 1 Dec the Station will be reduced to a crew of only two (Suraev,
Williams) for about three weeks.

The next Soyuz crew (Kotov, Creamer, Noguchi - Soyuz-TMA 01M) are due to
launch on 21 Dec, returning the Station crew to five. It will not increase
to six again until the following Soyuz crew arrives (Skvortsov, Kornienko,
Caldwell - Soyuz-TMA 02M) in March 2010.

There's definitely been an oversight here in terms of crewing, leaving the
Station short by one for over three months, and by four for two weeks. It's
no wonder the Russians have delayed the next Progress launch!

Eddie Lyons
Portsmouth, UK


"Greg D. Moore (Strider)" wrote in message
m...
I'm not seeing where you are getting only 2 crew for the station.


"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
...
Seems a bit of bad planning to allow the crew to get to just two for some
weeks soon to me. Is this just because there are no rides over the next
few months due to there being no spacecraft then?

So, one wonders, why are they bringing one person back now?. Then again,
why did they fly a tourist on the last mission, I guess one extra for a
couple of months would be a bit difficult, but then, they have said in
the past that Shuttle crews could use the station as a refuge if a
Shuttle was damaged.



--
Greg Moore
Ask me about lily, an RPI based CMC.

Eddie Lyons wrote:
Assuming STS-29 launches on time on 16 Nov it will return to Earth on 27 Nov
with Nicole Stott. The Station crew will be reduced to five.

Then, when the Soyuz-TMA 15 crew (Romanenko, de Winne, Thirsk) return to
Earth on 1 Dec the Station will be reduced to a crew of only two (Suraev,
Williams) for about three weeks.

The next Soyuz crew (Kotov, Creamer, Noguchi - Soyuz-TMA 01M) are due to
launch on 21 Dec, returning the Station crew to five. It will not increase
to six again until the following Soyuz crew arrives (Skvortsov, Kornienko,
Caldwell - Soyuz-TMA 02M) in March 2010.

There's definitely been an oversight here in terms of crewing, leaving the
Station short by one for over three months, and by four for two weeks. It's
no wonder the Russians have delayed the next Progress launch!

No oversight. The three Russian docking ports are full so it is not
possible, in a six-crew two-Soyuz environment, for a Soyuz crew to do a
"direct" handover unless the current Progress is disposed first, and
that will remain the case until MRM-2 adds a fourth docking port.

This was not an oversight; it was foreseen and is why there is an MRM-2
in the first place.

You should listen to your press conferences very closely. The scenario was
mentioned and seemed to pass uncommented during the briefing with the two
lead flight directors on the upcoming Shuttle mission.

I think it is purely that there is no way to get enough spacecraft ready in
time. I''m guessing that Nicole has to come back to start training for the
last scheduled mission on the Shuttle next year, though I would imagine
this may well be not really required as she seems to be a pretty fast
learner.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
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"Greg D. Moore (Strider)" wrote in message
m...
I'm not seeing where you are getting only 2 crew for the station.


"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
...
Seems a bit of bad planning to allow the crew to get to just two for some
weeks soon to me. Is this just because there are no rides over the next
few months due to there being no spacecraft then?

So, one wonders, why are they bringing one person back now?. Then again,
why did they fly a tourist on the last mission, I guess one extra for a
couple of months would be a bit difficult, but then, they have said in
the past that Shuttle crews could use the station as a refuge if a
Shuttle was damaged.



--
Greg Moore
Ask me about lily, an RPI based CMC.

When Soyuz-TMA 15 undocks on 1 Dec the Zarya -Z port will be left empty
until Soyuz-TMA 01M arrives on 23 Dec. This will be a normal handover
sequence. What is not normal is the three week gap between the two. S-TMA
01M has been rescheduled from a 7 Dec launch. Has the reason for this delay
been covered in the media?

The oversight, as I termed it (perhaps not the most appropriate word) is the
empty Soyuz seat left by the departure of Stott on STS-129. This leaves the
station short-handed for the next few months until the cycling of Soyuz
crews fills the gap. I can't help but think that a flight opportunity has
been missed here.

Eddie Lyons
Portsmouth, UK

"Jorge R. Frank" wrote in message
...
Eddie Lyons wrote:
Assuming STS-29 launches on time on 16 Nov it will return to Earth on 27
Nov
with Nicole Stott. The Station crew will be reduced to five.

Then, when the Soyuz-TMA 15 crew (Romanenko, de Winne, Thirsk) return to
Earth on 1 Dec the Station will be reduced to a crew of only two (Suraev,
Williams) for about three weeks.

The next Soyuz crew (Kotov, Creamer, Noguchi - Soyuz-TMA 01M) are due to
launch on 21 Dec, returning the Station crew to five. It will not
increase
to six again until the following Soyuz crew arrives (Skvortsov,
Kornienko,
Caldwell - Soyuz-TMA 02M) in March 2010.

There's definitely been an oversight here in terms of crewing, leaving
the
Station short by one for over three months, and by four for two weeks.
It's
no wonder the Russians have delayed the next Progress launch!

No oversight. The three Russian docking ports are full so it is not
possible, in a six-crew two-Soyuz environment, for a Soyuz crew to do a
"direct" handover unless the current Progress is disposed first, and that
will remain the case until MRM-2 adds a fourth docking port.

This was not an oversight; it was foreseen and is why there is an MRM-2 in
the first place.

Could they not extend the stay of the crew by a week or two to help
narrow the gap ? As I recall, there have been a few instances already
where a Soyuz stays a little longer than originally planned and that
they have a bit of a buffer in their 6 month "stay in space" limit.

On the other hand, having a couple of weeks of quiet without any guests
might allow the 2 occupants to finally do the spring cleaning that is
needed in the station, dust and clean the furniture, vacuum everything,
throw out the trash, wash the windows (inside and outside :-), fix the
curtains, tydy the wiring, and duct tape anything that isn't secured
properly :-)