Russian Supply Ship For Space-Station Crashes......

[MMC]

http://news.yahoo.com/russian-supply-ship-space-station-crashes-172337040.html
AP – 15 hrs ago.....

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A Russian space station supply ship crashed with a thunderous boom into Siberia minutes after launch Wednesday, rattling NASA and others in this new era without any shuttles to bail out the orbiting outpost.

While the International Space Station has more than enough supplies, the accident threatens to delay the launch of the next crew, just one month away. That's because the upper stage of the unmanned Soyuz rocket that failed is similar to the ones used to launch astronauts to the station.

In addition, three of the six space station residents who are due to return to Earth in two weeks might end up staying longer. NASA wants a full staff to keep research going. The astronauts were just beginning to spend more time on scientific experiments, now that the station is complete.

Without the shuttles, NASA now is counting on Russia, Europe and Japan, as well as private U.S. businesses, to keep the station stocked. The Russians had 3 tons of supplies aboard the Progress ship that was destroyed. And it's the Russians who will be transporting astronauts back and forth until U.S. private industry can pick up the human load.

NASA and its international partners want to keep the space station running until at least 2020.....snip~

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Zf3S47hYlENUJjF.5gN7Ig--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MTMyNztjcj0xO2N3PTEwMDg7ZHg9MD tkeT0wO2ZpPXVsY3JvcDtoPTI1MTtxPTg1O3c9MTkw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/71a89ff700fec813f60e6a706700820a.jpg http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/gj_COdyiWZffKQ5tbhQatA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MTE0NTtjcj0xO2N3PTE2Mzk7ZHg9MD tkeT0wO2ZpPXVsY3JvcDtoPTEzMztxPTg1O3c9MTkw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/73ede93100dfc713f60e6a7067008801.jpg

Looks like there is going to be some difficulties without the US being involved with the Space-Station. Althought the US has international partners. We are looking for US buisness to pick up the tab. The Russians have another launch later in the year. but now will be held up since this rocket crashed. Thoughts? http://www.politicalhotwire.com/images/smilies/satellite.png

[Conley]

This is just a sorry state of affairs. We're depending on Russians for food? :D >:D The Russian Government can afford shuttles but ours cannot.

We are probably paying for those shuttle launches ourselves too. Private business has talked about a shuttle for years but it still seems a way off.

[MMC]

This is just a sorry state of affairs. We're depending on Russians for food? :D >:D The Russian Government can afford shuttles but ours cannot.

We are probably paying for those shuttle launches ourselves too. Private business has talked about a shuttle for years but it still seems a way off.


I think private industry is already there I was looking for some stuff I had up on it before. I will re-round on this one.

[MMC]

http://billionaires.forbes.com/article/0fZ0bxC9G44kW

NASA's 7 new space pioneers are companies

Mimicking a scene 51 years ago when the Mercury astronauts were revealed, NASA's boss beamed Tuesday as he introduced the "faces of a new frontier:" representatives of the seven companies that NASA is funding to develop future private spacecraft.....snip~

WASHINGTON – A half century ago the Mercury Seven embodied America's space future. Now it's the merchant seven — space companies for hire. Mimicking a scene 51 years ago when the Mercury astronauts were revealed, NASA's boss beamed Tuesday as he introduced the "faces of a new frontier:" representatives of the seven companies that NASA is funding to develop future private spacecraft.

And more money is coming. In President Barack Obama's proposed budget, he not only killed his predecessor's $100 billion moon program, he proposed spending $6 billion over five years to develop private space taxis. NASA would then pay them to carry astronauts to the International Space Station.

Some of the players include companies run by Internet pioneers Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Elon Musk of PayPal. Bezos runs Blue Origin, a Kent, Wash., company that until Tuesday had only talked about going into suborbital space; now it will compete to go into orbit as a space taxi. Musk runs SpaceX of Hawthorne, Calif. and already has built a rocket called Falcon and a capsule called Dragon. Others include Boeing Co. of Houston; Paragon Space Development Co. of Tucson, Ariz.; Sierra Nevada Corp. of Sparks, Nev.; United Launch Alliance of Denver, and Orbital Science Corp. of Dulles, Va.

NASA on Tuesday detailed $50 million worth of seed grants for development of a space taxi to Boeing, Sierra Nevada, Paragon, United Launch and Blue Origin.....snip~