Russian Soyuz spaceship blasts off for International Space Station

[LooperNor]

[IMG]http://static.vg.no/uploaded/image/bilderigg/2012/05/15/1337054639469_967.jpg[/IMG]

[quote](CNN) -- A Soyuz spacecraft lifted off from a launch site in Kazakhstan on Tuesday to ferry three new crew members to the International Space Station.

The Russian vehicle is carrying the three space engineers -- an American, Joe Acaba; and two Russians, Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin -- from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, according to the NASA website.

Once at the space station, they will join three colleagues already on board: Commander Oleg Kononenko, a Russian; and two flight engineers, Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands and Don Pettit, an American.

The six men form the space station's Expedition 31.

The ISS is a joint venture between NASA, Russia's RKA space agency, Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency, the European Space Agency and the Canadian CSA.

NASA is now reliant on the Russian space agency to ferry U.S. astronauts to orbit, since the grounding of the U.S. shuttle fleet has left the United States with no way to lift humans into space.

Plans are in the works for private companies to begin shipping cargo to the station, and eventually to carry astronauts as well.[/quote]

Source: [URL]http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/14/world/asia/kazakhstan-space-launch/index.html?hpt=hp_t3[/URL]

Video: [URL]http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=143657161[/URL]

[Vegh]

Oldest rocket still in use in the world and going

[1nfiniteseed]

Don't fix what ain't broken. As much of a miracle it is that it hasn't fallen apart or had some disaster recently.

[QUOTE=Marbalo;35962854]What the fuck are you doing US.[/QUOTE]

Lack of funding. Right now NASA is looking for new platforms to use since they retired the shuttle, but it's been a slow process. So long as the Russians are cooperative and we have the money, there's little incentive to put money back into the program.

[Killer900]

[QUOTE=Marbalo;35962854]What the fuck are you doing US.[/QUOTE]Lol that's so embarrassing for us.

[LooperNor]

[QUOTE=Killer900;35962894]Lol that's so embarrassing for us.[/QUOTE]

They're working on this though:

[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/97/Art_of_SLS_launch.jpg/576px-Art_of_SLS_launch.jpg[/img]

[Apocalypsewaffle]

[QUOTE=1nfiniteseed;35962855]Don't fix what ain't broken. As much of a miracle it is that it hasn't fallen apart or had some disaster recently.

Lack of funding. Right now NASA is looking for new platforms to use since they retired the shuttle, but it's been a slow process. So long as the Russians are cooperative and we have the money, there's little incentive to put money back into the program.[/QUOTE]

It's funny how russian tech works. If something breaks in a NASA rocket, it explodes. If something breaks in a soyuz, they bang it with a wrench a few times and it works again.

[danharibo]

[QUOTE=LarparNar;35962910]They're working on this though:

[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/97/Art_of_SLS_launch.jpg/576px-Art_of_SLS_launch.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]

The SLS is a joke.

[LooperNor]

[QUOTE=MendozaMan;35962913]It's funny how russian tech works. If something breaks in a NASA rocket, it explodes. If something breaks in a soyuz, they bang it with a wrench a few times and it works again.[/QUOTE]

That's funny because the largest explosion in rocket history is a Russian N-1.

[danharibo]

[QUOTE=MendozaMan;35962913]It's funny how russian tech works. If something breaks in a NASA rocket, it explodes. If something breaks in a soyuz, they bang it with a wrench a few times and it works again.[/QUOTE]

Not quite, the part explodes, but the explosion just makes the rocket stronger.

[LooperNor]

[QUOTE=danharibo;35962917]The SLS is a joke.[/QUOTE]

Elaborate.

[danharibo]

[QUOTE=LarparNar;35962923]Elaborate.[/QUOTE]

NASA is being beaten by private companies who have actually delivered a rocket, and done it for less.

SpaceX has received about $500 Million from NASA as part of their contracts for COTS and CCDev

The budget for developing the SLS is set at $11 Billion, a lot more than the contact to SpaceX.

I will concede that Orion is bigger, and that Dragon is not yet ready for human flight, but they've still demonstrated an ability to have a better price.

[OvB]

[QUOTE=LarparNar;35962920]That's funny because the largest explosion in rocket history is a Russian N-1.[/QUOTE][img]http://i.imgur.com/JwaH9.jpg[/img]
That thing's ridiculous.

Russian lunar programs are such a fascinating thing.

[LooperNor]

[QUOTE=danharibo;35962965]NASA is being beaten by private companies who have actually delivered a rocket, and done it for less.

SpaceX has received about $500 Million from NASA as part of their contracts for COTS and CCDev

The budget for developing the SLS is set at $11 Billion, a lot more than the contact to SpaceX.

I will concede that Orion is bigger, and that Dragon is not yet ready for human flight, but they've still demonstrated an ability to have a better price.[/QUOTE]

While I agree that private space travel is going to be great, I also think it's disadvantageous for NASA to not have their own heavy launch vehicle.

The payload capability of the Falcon 9 is also much less than what the SLS will have.

[VengfulSoldier]

[QUOTE=LarparNar;35963000]While I agree that private space travel is going to be great, I also think it's disadvantageous for NASA to not have their own heavy launch vehicle.

The payload capability of the Falcon 9 is also much less than what the SLS will have.[/QUOTE]

That and I honestly don't believe that private companies will go out of their way to explore space.

I agree with Neil deGrasse Tyson on this.

[DOG-GY]

[QUOTE=Marbalo;35962854]What the fuck are you doing US.[/QUOTE]
that's real old news did u just hear of this

[booster]

[QUOTE=Marbalo;35962854]What the fuck are you doing US.[/QUOTE]

Need more bombs.

[swebonny]

[QUOTE=danharibo;35962965]NASA is being beaten by private companies who have actually delivered a rocket, and done it for less.

SpaceX has received about $500 Million from NASA as part of their contracts for COTS and CCDev

The budget for developing the SLS is set at $11 Billion, a lot more than the contact to SpaceX.

I will concede that Orion is bigger, and that Dragon is not yet ready for human flight, but they've still demonstrated an ability to have a better price.[/QUOTE]

I think NASA will start to use private companies to deliver people to ISS in a few years and use the SLS to launch really big stuff or people to the moon.

[danharibo]

[QUOTE=VengfulSoldier;35964146]That and I honestly don't believe that private companies will go out of their way to explore space.

I agree with Neil deGrasse Tyson on this.[/QUOTE]

Nobody's asking them to explore space, they're only there to put payloads into orbit.

[Taipan]

Yeah, getting our main man Andre Kuipers off it!

[smurfy]

[QUOTE=MendozaMan;35962913]It's funny how russian tech works. If something breaks in a NASA rocket, it explodes. If something breaks in a soyuz, they bang it with a wrench a few times and it works again.[/QUOTE]

It's true, [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16317099]Russia's recent launch history is flawless[/url]

[quote=BBC News]Russia's recent poor launch record has continued with yet another Soyuz rocket failure.

This time, a Soyuz-2 vehicle failed to put a communications satellite into orbit after lifting away from the country's Plesetsk spaceport.

Debris is said to have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and crashed to the ground.

In August, a Soyuz failure on a mission to resupply the space station led to a six-week suspension of flights.

Back on 1 February, a Rokot launch also underperformed with a similar outcome.

And on 5 December last year, a Proton carrying three navigation spacecraft fell into the Pacific Ocean. This particular failure is widely believed to have contributed to the decision of the Russian government to replace the then space agency chief, Anatoly Perminov.

The rocket failures come on top of the loss of Phobos-Grunt, Russia's most ambitious planetary mission in decades. It became stuck in Earth orbit after its launch in November and will probably fall back to Earth next month.[/quote]

[MrEndangered]

[QUOTE=MendozaMan;35962913]It's funny how russian tech works. If something breaks in a NASA rocket, it explodes. If something breaks in a soyuz, they bang it with a wrench a few times and it works again.[/QUOTE]

Did you watch Armageddon staring that guy from Die Hard and say 'Yep, this is real life'?

[ViralHatred]

Earth has a finite amount of natural resources. Companies like Space X will spurn the development of spacial technology and lead us ever further to the stars to meet our resource requirements in the far future.

[sami-pso]

Soyuz Launches look really nice. Especially when they launch it in the dark.

[VengfulSoldier]

[QUOTE=danharibo;35964370]Nobody's asking them to explore space, they're only there to put payloads into orbit.[/QUOTE]

That's the entire point of going into space, to explore and colonize.

[Breen]

[QUOTE=VengfulSoldier;35965059]That's the entire point of going into space, to explore and colonize.[/QUOTE]

Well, That and stuff like mining and maybe zero g factories if we ever get a cheap way to put stuff in orbit

[sHiBaN]

[QUOTE=Marbalo;35962854]What the fuck are you doing US.[/QUOTE]

Being poor and buying more boolet for terrarist

[Arsonist]

if America diverted just 1% of their defence budget onto space, imagine how far we could go.

Mars mission anyone?

[JinkoMK]

Wow, I didn't know the latest episode of The Big Bang Theory coincided with this Russian space launch.

[danharibo]

[QUOTE=VengfulSoldier;35965059]That's the entire point of going into space, to explore and colonize.[/QUOTE]

Communications satellites, weather satellites, geological satellites, imaging satellites.

Yeah no practical business application what so ever.

[Zarjk]

The reason Nasa doesn't have any money is because the United States does not care about space at the moment.

Which is sad.