Over the past several days, much attention has been focused on the faulty landing of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft bringing back crew members from the International Space Station. American Peggy Whitson, Russian Yuri Malenchenko and South Korean Yi So-yeon (the first South Korean in space) were apparently subjected to ten times the force of gravity - far above what is supposed to be the case - and landed nearly 300 miles away from their landing site.
NASA is playing down the problem, despite the fact that this is the second flawed landing by a Soyuz in as many attempts. While an investigation of the problem will doubtless take some time, it is quite clear that the reputation of the Soyuz spacecraft as a safe and reliable vessel is under threat.
These facts should be kept in mind when we consider that the United States will rely on the Soyuz for a minimum of five years between the schduled retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2010 and the first manned flight of the Orion in 2015.
The Committee for the Advocacy of Space Exploration believes that funding should be provided by Congress in order to accelerate the development of the Orion spacecraft and the Ares rocket, so as to minimize the amount of time NASA will be required to depend on Soyuz for transportation to the ISS. Not only are there safety issues to consider, but it is politically unwise to rely upon Russia in such matters.
