source: a NASA/United Space Alliance internal briefing obtained by Flight
Checking with my ISS programme sources I have got confirmation that the Soyuz TMA-11 descent module did indeed incorrectly separate from its equipment module and been informed about the engineering changes Energia is making to try to solve the problem
source: a NASA/United Space Alliance internal briefing obtained by Flight
I have learnt that the US space agency and other ISS partner organisations have asked the Russian authorities for briefings on the investigation
All these agencies are very concerned at the turn of events because the Soyuz is the main crew transportation system and will be the only method of ferrying astronauts into orbit until at least 2015 if the Shuttle is retired in 2010
The Russians have been making technical changes to Soyuz as part of a wider, longer "upgrade programme" and the concern is that recent "upgrades" to Soyuz may be contributing to the problems the last two flights have had
Another concern is that there was not sufficient testing of the new components, subsystems to ensure they would be reliable enough and also what impact those new subsystems would have on the older sub/systems
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