Russia has grounded its Soyuz rockets after one of the unmanned craft crashed shortly after blast-off while carrying tonnes of cargo for the International Space Station (ISS), a space official said yesterday.
“A decision has been taken to halt the launch of Soyuz carrier rockets until the reasons for the accident become clear,” the unnamed Russian official told the Interfax news agency.
The accident on Wednesday has raised concerns over the reserves of the six crew members on board the station and clouded the future of an ISS program that relies almost exclusively on Russia following the retirement of US shuttles.
Both Russian and US space officials dispelled suggestions that the accident may prompt an emergency evacuation of the ISS crew.
Space officials from both sides said the team — which besides three Russians includes two US astronauts and an astronaut from Japan — had at least two months of supplies of food and other basics.
Russia’s immediate launch schedule was thrown into doubt on Wednesday when the Roskosmos space agency removed all reference to future missions from its official Web site.
The next manned flight to the ISS is scheduled for Sept. 22 and a cargo vessel with new supplies is due to take off on Oct. 28.
Both flights rely on various modifications of the Soyuz carrier rocket — a Soviet-era model whose importance has been magnified with the retirement of the US shuttle program this year.
Roskosmos said yesterday that it was fully committed to supplying the ISS with both cargo and crew despite the setback.
The agency said Roskosmos director Vladimir Popov held an emergency overnight meeting in which he requested “additional proposals on ways to provide support for the International Space Station and unconditionally meet” Russia’s commitments to it.
However, some in the Russian media said the fifth launch failure in the past nine months showed that the once-proud industry was entering a period of crisis.
“The series of launch accident points to a deep crisis,” the respected Kommersant business daily said on its front page. “More and more of Russia’s craft fail to reach orbit.”
Local officials said fragments of the craft crashed into Russia’s Siberian region of Altai on the border with Mongolia and China — a remote region of soaring mountains and poorly accessible by road.
“The explosion was so powerful it shattered windows nearly 100km away,” said the region’s Choya district head Alexander Borisov.
The Progress was the fourth failed launch of a capsule or satellite by Russia since December last year, when three satellites for its prized new GLONASS system crashed into the Pacific Ocean after launch.
BEYOND WASHINGTON: Although historically the US has been the partner of choice for military exercises, Jakarta has been trying to diversify its partners, an analyst said Indonesia’s first joint military drills with Russia this week signal that new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto would seek a bigger role for Jakarta on the world stage as part of a significant foreign policy shift, analysts said. Indonesia has long maintained a neutral foreign policy and refuses to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or US-China rivalry, but Prabowo has called for stronger ties with Moscow despite Western pressure on Jakarta. “It is part of a broader agenda to elevate ties with whomever it may be, regardless of their geopolitical bloc, as long as there is a benefit for Indonesia,” said Pieter
US ELECTION: Polls show that the result is likely to be historically tight. However, a recent Iowa poll showed Harris winning the state that Trump won in 2016 and 2020 US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris courted voters angered by the Gaza war while former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump doubled down on violent rhetoric with a comment about journalists being shot as the tense US election campaign entered its final hours. The Democratic vice president and the Republican former president frantically blitzed several swing states as they tried to win over the last holdouts with less than 36 hours left until polls open on election day today. Trump predicted a “landslide,” while Harris told a raucous rally in must-win Michigan that “we have momentum — it’s
‘SHARP COMPETITION’: Australia is to partner with US-based Lockheed Martin to make guided multiple launch rocket systems, an Australian defense official said Australia is to ramp up missile manufacturing under a plan unveiled yesterday by a top defense official, who said bolstering weapons stockpiles would help keep would-be foes at bay. Australian Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy said the nation would establish a homegrown industry to produce long-range guided missiles and other much-needed munitions. “Why do we need more missiles? Strategic competition between the United States and China is a primary feature of Australia’s security environment,” Conroy said in a speech. “That competition is at its sharpest in our region, the Indo-Pacific.” Australia is to partner with US-based weapons giant Lockheed Martin to make
TIGHT CAMPAIGN: Although Harris got a boost from an Iowa poll, neither candidate had a margin greater than three points in any of the US’ seven battleground states US Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in the final days before the election, as she and former US president and Republican presidential nominees make a frantic last push to win over voters in a historically close campaign. The first lines Harris spoke as she sat across from Maya Rudolph, their outfits identical, was drowned out by cheers from the audience. “It is nice to see you Kamala,” Harris told Rudolph with a broad grin she kept throughout the sketch. “And I’m just here to remind you, you got this.” In sync, the two said supporters