Russia, US, give conflicting signals on space station

Aug 29, 2011, 19:51 GMT

Moscow/Washington - Russia and the US gave conflicting signals Monday about the way forward with the space station now that the only remaining transport there - the Soyuz - has been temporarily grounded after an accident.

Russia said it was determined to keep the International Space Station manned despite the recent failure of the only booster rocket capable of bringing replacement astronauts aloft.

But the US space programme said that if the problems are not identified and solved by mid-November, all of the six International Space Station astronauts would b e brought back to Earth.

'We will do everything possible not to leave the station without a crew,' said Aleksei Krasnov, head of Russia's piloted space vehicle programme, told Interfax. 'We are going to have a manned mission (to the ISS) by the end of December.'

Regular supply deliveries and crew rotation to the ISS suffered a blow when Russia's mainstay rocket for flying such missions, the Soyuz, placed a satellite in incorrect orbit on August 24. The freight module crashed into a remote Central Asian region of the country.

Russia's national space agency grounded the country's Soyuz booster rocket fleet pending the results of an investigation into the accident.

Since the recent retirement of the US shuttle programme, the only means of transporting astronauts and freight to the orbiting station is the Soyuz.

NASA programme manager Mike Suffredini said Monday that in the absence of resolution of the Soyuz problems, the ISS astronauts would be brought home before their replacements can reach the station.

'We're gonna do what's safest for the crew and the space station,' Suffredini was quoted as saying in the Houston Chronicle.

Three of the six astronauts currently aboard the station are to return to Earth during the landing window from September 8th - 16th using a standard Russian landing module currently docked at the station, Krasnov said.

'We can't wait,' he said. 'That will happen on schedule.'

Krasnov's announcement contradicted earlier Russian media reports that the three spacemen - Russians Aleksandr Samokutayev and Andrei Borisenko, and American Roland Garan - might have to stay on the station even to November.

Their departure would leave three other astronauts - Russian Sergei Volkov, American Michael Fossum and Japan's Satoshi Furukawa - still on board and, as long Soyuz rockets are grounded, without possible replacements.

Russia is planning 'one or two' unmanned missions with its Soyuz booster during October which, if successful, would become the green light for a manned flight to the ISS using a Soyuz booster, officials said.

One Soyuz booster will carry a US Globalstar satellite into orbit on October 8, while an October 14 mission will launch a Soyuz booster to send an unmanned Progress space vehicle loaded with supplies to the ISS.

Only a failure of an unmanned Soyuz mission in October, or further unexpected delays, would force Russia to consider ordering the last three astronauts aboard the ISS to return home, leaving the station unmanned, he said.

'It (leaving the ISS without crew) is only possible in an extreme case. If for some reason it's not possible to get a crew there by the end of November, then we are going to have to look at all possibilities,' Krasnov said.

The ISS has food and water supplies sufficient to support crew members aboard through December, according to Russian news reports.

Read more about US