CAPE CANAVERAL, FL — Russia had a launch accident that prevents them from going to the Space Station – leaving the astronauts stranded.
There is a problem with the Russian Soyuz rockets and they can not be launched to the International Space Station anymore.
There is no way to launch any more astronauts before the current residents have to leave in mid-November.
The astronauts on the space station have 2 Soyuz rockets attached to the space station – but engineers fear there is a high probably they won’t work. And after November the Russians say it will be difficult to have them land the Soyuz rockets anyway.
That leaves the astronauts – stranded.
The unsettling predicament comes just weeks after NASA’s final space shuttle flight.
“We have very fe options,” NASA’s space station program manager, Sal Bonafiore, told reporters Monday. “We’ll focus on keep the crew alive as long as we can.”
IF they can get the astronauts down to earth with the Soyuz rockets, that will leave the $100 billion space station abandoned.
Abandoning the space station, even for a short period, would be a last resort for the world’s five space agencies that have spent decades working on the project. Astronauts have been living aboard the space station since 2000, and the goal is to keep it going until 2020.
The Russians plan on shutting it down in 2020. The Americans have no say in the decision – the Obama Administration closed our space program.
Bonafiore said that if there is no way to main the space station, it will breakdown within weeks and become -“useless.”
Six astronauts from three countriesare living on the orbiting complex. Three were due to leave next month; the other three were supposed to check out in mid-November.
Let’s hope they can make it off and return to earth.
Please, do some homework before posting such alarmist issues. The Russians have a spare Progress cargo freighter and now they are preparing to launch the ship toward to ISS.