57
votes
Accepted
Evacuating the ISS but wait, there's only one Spacecraft?
By design that will never happen. There are always enough return seats for the crew.
This is exactly why
the whole crew of one of the visiting vehicles gets in it whenever it undocks, even when it is ...
- 177k
28
votes
Evacuating the ISS but wait, there's only one Spacecraft?
What would happen if there was a freak accident in which that the ISS needed to be evacuated and there was ONLY one space craft available?
Carrying that to an even greater extreme, what would happen ...
- 72.5k
21
votes
Why doesn't Roscosmos launch Soyuz spacecraft with only Russians on board?
As of 24 April 2020, the Russians & Chinese are the only ones capable of sending people into orbit. The Chinese crewed space program is still in its early stages & only sends Chinese people ...
- 12.5k
9
votes
What is the current status of ESA/Roscosmos cooperation with regard to the ExoMars Orbiter?
A March 17, 2022 statement by ESA, has declared the suspension of ExoMars.
ExoMars
ESA’s ruling Council, meeting in Paris on 16-17 March, assessed the situation arising from the war in Ukraine ...
- 12.5k
8
votes
Why doesn't Roscosmos launch Soyuz spacecraft with only Russians on board?
This is somewhat adding on to @geoffc's answer
The ISS is a joint project between NASA, Roscosmos, and other agencies.
As geoffc mentioned, both NASA and Roscosmos want to always have at least one ...
- 5,324
8
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Accepted
Why Proton launcher for ExoMars, and not Ariane?
As @Antzi said in his now-deleted answer, initially ExoMars was to be a collaboration between ESA and NASA, with NASA providing the launches. When NASA left the program, ESA sought a new deal, this ...
- 124k
7
votes
Why Proton launcher for ExoMars, and not Ariane?
Baikonur is definitely less favorable launch site than Guiana, with highly inclined orbits, but that doesn't play such a big role with interplanetary missions as inclination correction on very high ...
- 54.4k
7
votes
Accepted
Into what non-navigable Pacific Ocean area did structural elements of the Progress MS16 cargo ship & Pirs module fall? Are there maps of these areas?
The usual spacecraft cemetery, known more formally as the South Pacific Ocean Uninhabited Area.
Wikipedia puts the general location at 43°34′48″S 142°43′12″W, and Roscosmos stated:
At 14:42 UTC, [MS-...
- 2,301
6
votes
Evacuating the ISS but wait, there's only one Spacecraft?
There WAS a different concept for returning folks from orbit in emergencies that was considered, called MOOSE, but it never got out of the planning stages.
- 61
6
votes
Accepted
Does the Proton-M have a launch termination system?
«Если что-то в ракете перестает работать, подается команда АВД — «аварийное выключение двигателей». Это пошло еще со времен боевых ракет, чтобы в случае отказа ракета упала на нашей территории. ...
- 7,813
6
votes
Accepted
Is there internal diagram of Zvezda or information about the internal size of Zvezda?
Not so much diagrams exist, but I found old one (with annotations in Russian):
https://cont.ws/uploads/pic/2017/12/2014-mks_07.jpg
from this page.
I am not sure is it official data from ...
- 9,041
6
votes
Why doesn't Roscosmos launch Soyuz spacecraft with only Russians on board?
The Soyuz vehicle requires a custom seat liner to be make the impact of landing safer.
Soyuz capsules return to Earth via a parachute to a land based landing, uses solid rockets that fire in the ...
- 79.2k
6
votes
Why are there advertisements in the Russian ISS flight control room?
They needed the money.
Sometimes it seemed the Russian space program would do almost anything
to raise money.....
(the book goes on to describe renting out the TsUP's lobby to a Czech lighting-...
- 177k
6
votes
Why are these Soyuz Astronauts/Cosmonauts wearing sun glasses and a blanket after landing?
Shuttle astronauts often wore sunglasses after exiting the Orbiter / post-landing convoy vehicles.
Image Source NASA
Image Source NASA
Don't overthink this. They wore sunglasses because the light ...
- 177k
5
votes
Accepted
Why are these Soyuz Astronauts/Cosmonauts wearing sun glasses and a blanket after landing?
The Sokol suit is designed to be worn inside the Soyuz capsule. The suit is made from two layers only, the inner layer of a rubberized fabric and the outer layer made from Nylon are not suitable to ...
- 48.7k
5
votes
Is the Nudelman-Rikhter gun installed on Zvezda module?
According to this source (in Russian), out of seven successful Salyut stations (amongst which were the three military Almaz stations) the modified NR-23 cannon was installed only on Salyut-3 (aka ...
- 6,382
4
votes
Accepted
Will the countries ever co-operate again for the next upcoming era of Martian exploration?
Most likely the countries will eventually cooperate when it comes to Mars, after the Mars race.
Plans to go to Mars.
The details of when and where are not clear. China wants to go to Mars by the end ...
- 635
4
votes
Accepted
What are these two devices extending from each end of the Progress MS16 cargo ship's solar panels?
Peering at pictures of earlier Progress flights, these features were visible on MS-01 (62P) but not on M-28M (60P) which just has a couple of metal "pegs" instead. So it looks like an MS-...
- 7,726
4
votes
How far apart are ISS launch windows?
Eccentricity has very little to do with launch windows in general, and the International Space Station's specifically. The ISS's orbit is very close to circular, with an eccentricity of 0.003 or less.
...
- 72.5k
3
votes
Why does the ISS occasionally operate with just 3 crew members?
There are probably several reasons and it is a mix of them all.
At some levels your question is somewhat specific on why they do indirect handoffs, where one crew of three remains, one crew of three ...
- 79.2k
3
votes
Accepted
Where is the "antenna farm" from which this Soyuz launch photo was taken?
This IP-1 site at Baikonur cosmodrome
https://kik-sssr.ru/IP_1_Turatam_Foto.htm
A few examples of other views of the antenna arrays in the question from there:
- 7,813
3
votes
Where is the "antenna farm" from which this Soyuz launch photo was taken?
The quad parabola is in the "radio-engineering center" (loose translation) here You can't see it well in that Google image, but it shows up clearly in this image of the same area from Apple Maps:
The ...
- 12.6k
3
votes
What device did Oleg Novitsky insert into the hatch of the Nauka module before opening it? How does it work? When did it arrive to the ISS?
Its a standard key for the Russian hatches.
bit short of time atm, will add more.
Actually answered here:
How is the docking hatch on the Progress/ATV opened?
The hatch opening procedure is described ...
- 8,572
3
votes
Accepted
Who is currently an authority on (at least coordinating) space orbits?
Currently, nobody is launching a satellite without using radio emissions (one-way or two-way) with Earth stations. Therefore the ITU-R, which is the international body that regulates the use of ...
- 2,689
2
votes
Was it ever suggested to merge ESA with Roscosmos?
I've never seen serious discussion of Russia becoming an ESA member state. It's fairly unlikely to happen as Russia would see this as a degradation.
There is extensive cooperation between ESA and ...
- 124k
2
votes
Accepted
What if an ISS astronaut refused to leave the space station?
I doubt there's an explicit procedure to follow in this case, but such a crew member would doubtless be physically forced to return.
Any crew member who would refuse to return would be untrustworthy ...
- 166k
2
votes
Why are these Soyuz Astronauts/Cosmonauts wearing sun glasses and a blanket after landing?
This is done to make the astronauts more comfortable, of course.
Sunglasses: the astronauts haven't been outside for weeks/months, and with the clear sky it looks to be quite bright out there. And ...
- 124k
2
votes
What is the meaning of the ROSCOSMOS logo?
https://ria.ru/20180711/1524344892.html
July 11, 2018 RIA News. The Roscosmos offensive corporation changed
its logo, abandoning the version introduced by Igor Komarov and
returning to the ...
- 7,813
2
votes
Accepted
What are these Soyuz Astronauts/Cosmonauts holding in their hands before launch?
They're portable cooling units for the spacesuits, as you guess, but they aren't used aboard the spacecraft; instead, the suits are plugged into the spacecraft's environmental systems. They're only ...
- 166k
2
votes
How far apart are ISS launch windows?
This chart shows the launch windows for shuttle mission STS-127 (a mission to the ISS) for a one-week period.
You can see the windows were 10 minutes long, not instantaneous. There was at least a ...
- 177k
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