For eight years, the only way NASA’s astronauts could get to the ISS has been via the Russian Soyuz rocket.

There are several different supply vessels (the Japanese Kounotori, the SpaceX CRS, Northrop Grumman Cygnus, the Russian Progress craft) but there’s only been one human-mover.

This year, NASA will obtain access to two manned craft, the SpaceX Crew Dragon and the Boeing Starliner, as part of its Commercial Crew Development program.

The Starliner will have a run without crew in March 2019, followed by a manned run in August. The Crew Dragon will have its unmanned run in February, with a manned launch softly scheduled in June.

Each craft can carry seven people, and is reusable. The Dragon is somewhat lighter and it is surprising how different the designs are, with the Dragon looking rather like an old torpedo and the Starliner more like the Apollo Command module. Starliner will land on dry ground, Dragon uses a splashdown. Dragon also has side-mounted launch escape rocketry.

The crew for the first Boeing Starliner launch has already been named, and it includes two NASA astronauts and one retired NASA astronaut who is now a Boeing employee. The inaugural Crew Dragon flight will have two crew, both of them current NASA astronauts.

Although the ISS ferry run will be the bread and butter for both of these craft, there have also been plans for their use in space tourism.

> For eight years, the only way NASA’s astronauts could get to the ISS has been via the Russian Soyuz rocket.

Yes. Frightening, isn’t it.

mollwollfumble said:

> For eight years, the only way NASA’s astronauts could get to the ISS has been via the Russian Soyuz rocket.

Yes. Frightening, isn’t it.

Maybe they should have started cooperating with the Chinese earlier.

mollwollfumble said:

> For eight years, the only way NASA’s astronauts could get to the ISS has been via the Russian Soyuz rocket.

Yes. Frightening, isn’t it.

Nah, The Russians can make some decent aerospace stuff.

party_pants said:

mollwollfumble said:

> For eight years, the only way NASA’s astronauts could get to the ISS has been via the Russian Soyuz rocket.

Yes. Frightening, isn’t it.

Nah, The Russians can make some decent aerospace stuff.

So far as getting to Earth orbit and the Moon and Venus, yes.
For some reason, Russian spacecraft tend to be heavy, reliable but heavy. That makes them tough to get much past Earth orbit.

mollwollfumble said:

party_pants said:

mollwollfumble said:

> For eight years, the only way NASA’s astronauts could get to the ISS has been via the Russian Soyuz rocket.

Yes. Frightening, isn’t it.

Nah, The Russians can make some decent aerospace stuff.

So far as getting to Earth orbit and the Moon and Venus, yes.
For some reason, Russian spacecraft tend to be heavy, reliable but heavy. That makes them tough to get much past Earth orbit.

They were never so good over the bumps but within the KISS principle lies improving on the basics.

mollwollfumble said:

party_pants said:

mollwollfumble said:

> For eight years, the only way NASA’s astronauts could get to the ISS has been via the Russian Soyuz rocket.

Yes. Frightening, isn’t it.

Nah, The Russians can make some decent aerospace stuff.

So far as getting to Earth orbit and the Moon and Venus, yes.
For some reason, Russian spacecraft tend to be heavy, reliable but heavy. That makes them tough to get much past Earth orbit.

Prefect for getting to the ISS. Of all the launch vehicles available it would probably be the least scary ride.

party_pants said:

mollwollfumble said:

party_pants said:

Nah, The Russians can make some decent aerospace stuff.

So far as getting to Earth orbit and the Moon and Venus, yes.
For some reason, Russian spacecraft tend to be heavy, reliable but heavy. That makes them tough to get much past Earth orbit.

Prefect for getting to the ISS. Of all the launch vehicles available it would probably be the least scary ride.

They seem to come and go without much incident.

Russia, per se, has not had a single successful mission beyond low earth orbit. Nothing has gone right for them in terms of lunar or deep space exploration.

But the Progress and Soyuz hardware is reliable as fuck. Second to none.

dv said:

Russia, per se, has not had a single successful mission beyond low earth orbit. Nothing has gone right for them in terms of lunar or deep space exploration.

But the Progress and Soyuz hardware is reliable as fuck. Second to none.

Keep it simple Slovana Stropmeoff. Start from the bottom up.

dv said:

Russia, per se, has not had a single successful mission beyond low earth orbit. Nothing has gone right for them in terms of lunar or deep space exploration.

But the Progress and Soyuz hardware is reliable as fuck. Second to none.

The Russians successfully sent a spacecraft to Venus (part of the Venera programme) in 1967. Though I agree, their space exploration has been limited.

btm said:

dv said:

Russia, per se, has not had a single successful mission beyond low earth orbit. Nothing has gone right for them in terms of lunar or deep space exploration.

But the Progress and Soyuz hardware is reliable as fuck. Second to none.

The Russians successfully sent a spacecraft to Venus (part of the Venera programme) in 1967. Though I agree, their space exploration has been limited.

Seems we have explored past the Sputnik then.

btm said:

dv said:

Russia, per se, has not had a single successful mission beyond low earth orbit. Nothing has gone right for them in terms of lunar or deep space exploration.

But the Progress and Soyuz hardware is reliable as fuck. Second to none.

The Russians successfully sent a spacecraft to Venus (part of the Venera programme) in 1967. Though I agree, their space exploration has been limited.

No. That was the Soviet Union, who had many successes.

dv said:

btm said:

dv said:

Russia, per se, has not had a single successful mission beyond low earth orbit. Nothing has gone right for them in terms of lunar or deep space exploration.

But the Progress and Soyuz hardware is reliable as fuck. Second to none.

The Russians successfully sent a spacecraft to Venus (part of the Venera programme) in 1967. Though I agree, their space exploration has been limited.

No. That was the Soviet Union, who had many successes.

I do love the smart arse in you.

roughbarked said:

dv said:

btm said:

The Russians successfully sent a spacecraft to Venus (part of the Venera programme) in 1967. Though I agree, their space exploration has been limited.

No. That was the Soviet Union, who had many successes.

I do love the smart arse in you.

But that’s the specific distinction I’m making. The Soviet Union had a pretty successful deep space program. Had a lot of “firsts” with the Venera program, the Luna program.

But Russia can’t get it happening.

dv said:

roughbarked said:

dv said:

No. That was the Soviet Union, who had many successes.

I do love the smart arse in you.

But that’s the specific distinction I’m making. The Soviet Union had a pretty successful deep space program. Had a lot of “firsts” with the Venera program, the Luna program.

But Russia can’t get it happening.

Hence my comment.

dv said:

roughbarked said:

dv said:

No. That was the Soviet Union, who had many successes.

I do love the smart arse in you.

But that’s the specific distinction I’m making. The Soviet Union had a pretty successful deep space program. Had a lot of “firsts” with the Venera program, the Luna program.

But Russia can’t get it happening.

Russia can’t get much happening though. It’s been allowed to become an okigarchical society.

Kothos said:

dv said:

roughbarked said:

I do love the smart arse in you.

But that’s the specific distinction I’m making. The Soviet Union had a pretty successful deep space program. Had a lot of “firsts” with the Venera program, the Luna program.

But Russia can’t get it happening.

Russia can’t get much happening though. It’s been allowed to become an okigarchical society.

oh yeah

Russia’s Mars missions, Mars 96 and Phobos-Grunt, both failed due to rocketry problems. I was pretty disappointed about Phobos-Grunt, that would have been an interesting program.

There was a time when both the European and Japanese space agencies were working on manned spacecraft but i’truth their involvement in the ISS probably reduced the need somewhat.

The Indian manned space program development is well underway. I admit this one snuck up on me, it seems like only recently that the program was announced but actually they’ve been benchmarking and performing flight tests for some time. The first (unmanned) launch of the Gaganyaan is scheduled for next year, with the first crewed flight planned for 2021.

dv said:

There was a time when both the European and Japanese space agencies were working on manned spacecraft but i’truth their involvement in the ISS probably reduced the need somewhat.

The Indian manned space program development is well underway. I admit this one snuck up on me, it seems like only recently that the program was announced but actually they’ve been benchmarking and performing flight tests for some time. The first (unmanned) launch of the Gaganyaan is scheduled for next year, with the first crewed flight planned for 2021.

Ta for the update. I haven’t been watching manned space flights. Only China and Russia at the moment. Attesting to the success of post-communism.

What’s the manned Chinese launcher? Checks Wikipedia.
Not Long March 5, not ready yet.
Long March 2F carried China’s first astronaut in 2003.
What about the others?

Timeline of Long March rockets.

Looking through https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Long_March_launches
Only mentions 6 Chinese manned launches, all using the Long March 2F.

Kothos said:

dv said:

roughbarked said:

I do love the smart arse in you.

But that’s the specific distinction I’m making. The Soviet Union had a pretty successful deep space program. Had a lot of “firsts” with the Venera program, the Luna program.

But Russia can’t get it happening.

Russia can’t get much happening though. It’s been allowed to become an okigarchical society.

Run by the mafia isn’t it

Cymek said:

Kothos said:

dv said:

But that’s the specific distinction I’m making. The Soviet Union had a pretty successful deep space program. Had a lot of “firsts” with the Venera program, the Luna program.

But Russia can’t get it happening.

Russia can’t get much happening though. It’s been allowed to become an okigarchical society.

Run by the mafia isn’t it

No. That’s the USA.