P
PistolPete
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<p>With three ballistic re-entries within the past five years, two of them in a row, I am forced to ponder what happens if the unthinkable occurs?</p><p>It seems so unthinkable because there hasn't been a fatal failure with the Soyuz spacecraft since Soyuz 11 back in 1971. Yet this belies the fact that the Soviet and Russian space agencies have had so many close calls that their luck is bound to run out.</p><p>So what will happen if we loose a Soyuz? Obviously, this means that production of Soyuz spacecraft would have to be put on hold. This means no ISS lifeboat. This prospect is even worse than after the loss of Columbia, because even without STS, the ISS could still function in "survival mode" on a two-man crew while the shuttle came back online. There is no such option with the Soyuz. If that gets grounded, then the ISS will have to be abandoned, at least for a time, until they came back online or until the Dragon or Orion capsules became operational. The last space shuttle flight was only 13 days long and that pushed the Shuttle's spaceflight endurance to the limit. There is no way that this could be used for a backup.</p><p>This also might have implications for the space tourist industry as the Soyuz is, by default, the only operational spacecraft that can take "spaceflight-participants." </p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><em>So, again we are defeated. This victory belongs to the farmers, not us.</em></p><p><strong>-Kambei Shimada from the movie Seven Samurai</strong></p> </div>