The second week of September was rich in news related to both the Russian and American space programs. Everyone was interested in what would happen to the crew of Boeing’s Starliner, and the Russian lunar program was also intriguing.

The story of the Starliner crew is a sympathetic one. Veteran astronauts Barry Eugene “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Lyn Williams  launched the first crewed test flight of the seven-seat reusable Starliner on June 5. NASA seemed to sense that it was not yet time to risk seven people. Especially considering that the unmanned Starliner had already failed.

The premonitions were right. Starliner encountered a lot of malfunctions, but still managed to dock with the ISS, where Butch and Sunita began repairs.

Unfortunately, the work was not successful. Moreover, Starliner became dangerous for the American module of the station.

In early September, Butch reported to Houston that the ship was making strange sounds that “may be related to an anomaly between the Starliner and the ISS,” and let Earth listen to them through a microphone.Read also

Fortunately, the ship was able to undock from the station, after which it made an emergency landing on Earth. However, Butch and Sunita remained on the ISS. As a result, there are now 19 people in low Earth orbit, which has never happened before.

In the order of rotation, three people will leave the ISS in our Soyuz in the near future, but there is no room for Butch and Sunita.

Meanwhile, these are no longer young astronauts. Barry Wilmore is 61 years old, and the legendary Sunita Williams (holder of the record among women for the number of days spent in space) is 58 years old. The duration of their flight, according to the plan, was supposed to be only 8 days, but they have already been delayed in orbit for three months, the fourth one has begun.

The Russian side offered to deliver two Americans to Earth with its Soyuz, but was refused. And now there is no longer any possibility.

There are currently two Soyuz spacecraft on the station. One of them delivered American NASA astronaut Donald Pettit to the ISS . Based on the agreement between Roscosmos and NASA on cross-flights of our cosmonauts on American Crew Dragon spacecraft and astronauts on Russian Soyuz MS, this spacecraft will remain in orbit for the entire period of Pettit’s work, which is more than 200 days. The American will be accompanied on the long-term expedition by Russians Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Wagner .

Another Soyuz will set off for Earth in a few days with an already approved American-Russian crew of returnees.

Meanwhile, Butch and Sunita have cleared the American docking port of the Starliner, allowing Elon Musk’s Crew Dragon to dock there .

But he had his own plans for those days. On September 11, the billionaire launched Crew Dragon on a commercial mission: to take four tourists for a ride. The crew included businessman Jared Isaacman , former military pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet , SpaceX astronaut program manager Sarah Gillies , and SpaceX chief space operations engineer Anna Manon .

The commercial flight was historic: for the first time there was not a single professional astronaut on board, and the ship rose to the highest orbit for manned spaceflight – 1400 km. The previous record – 1373 km – was set in 1966 by a crew of two NASA astronauts on the Gemini 11 ship.

And finally, for the first time in history, space tourists went into outer space, and to complete the experience, the landing was carried out in the sea off the coast of Florida and ended with a boat ride.

However, even if not first and foremost, Musk will still take Butch and Sunita from the ISS. A two-person crew has already been prepared for their evacuation: the ship’s commander, NASA astronaut Nick Hague , and mission specialist Alexander Gorbunov from Roscosmos .

They will launch to the ISS on the Crew Dragon with two empty seats – for Butch and Sunita. But the exact launch dates are still being determined.

Against the backdrop of passions surrounding manned space exploration, news about the Russian lunar program has faded a little.

The scientific director of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the first stage of the Russian lunar program, Academician Lev Zeleny, proposed not to launch Luna-26, and Roscosmos supported this proposal.

Interestingly, it was previously reported that Luna-26 is already ready and could launch this year or in 2025.

Now, instead of “Luna-26”, it is proposed to make two identical “Luna-27” at once, which will carry out their missions with a difference of six months in 2028.

— It is cheaper to make two identical devices. This approach was practiced in Soviet times and justified itself. The money for manufacturing and testing “dual hardware” is practically the same as for one satellite, since everything is done on one stand. But the guarantees that everything will be done are greater, — Lev Zeleny explained, but added that this issue has not been fully resolved:

“Unfortunately, the Roscosmos State Corporation also does not print money, so there is no final decision,” the academician admitted. Media News2

It is no secret that Roscosmos is now very seriously engaged in those space projects that are in demand for solving the problems of the SVO. However, this should not harm the lunar program – defense orders for the space industry are financed separately, and the main state investments in the development of the Earth’s satellite have already been made, and long before the SVO.

What is happening with state peaceful space programs in Russia, and in the US too? After all, even overseas NASA constantly ends up lagging behind the private Musk? The scientific director of the Institute of Space Policy Ivan Moiseyev answered this question for Svobodnaya Pressa :

— For about 20 years now, I have had the feeling that the Academy of Sciences has chosen the following policy: to postpone all RAS programs and projects for several years under various pretexts.

For example, Luna-25, which crashed a year ago, began in 2006 and was supposed to fly no later than 2014. But it was constantly postponed: by a year, by two. The reasons given were various, multiple.

This doesn’t just apply to space.

Why this is done — you need to ask the Russian Academy of Sciences. I assume that it is connected with two things. First: the longer the project is implemented — the longer it is financed. In fact, the failure to meet deadlines provides additional guarantees of stability to the performers.

And the second reason is that no one is responsible for missing these deadlines. Previously, people were punished for this, but now it feels like they even welcome it. It makes everyone feel calmer.

“SP”: Ivan Mikhailovich, isn’t the same thing happening with state civil cosmonautics in the USA? Elon Musk’s private program is incomparably more effective…

— Very similar. NASA officials opened funding for the Starliner reusable spacecraft to their old friends at Boeing. Many years passed. Both Starliner spacecraft — both piloted and unmanned — ended their missions in failure.

Here NASA and the Russian Academy of Sciences have a common problem: no one is responsible for failures.

During this time, Musk has made many ships, adapted them to service the ISS, and takes tourists on flights, which brings him a lot of money. Musk and Boeing started at the same time, but the results are strikingly different.

“SP”: Private individuals in the space industry are doing better than the state. Maybe in Russia too, “part of space” should be given to entrepreneurs?

— This has been discussed in our industry for a long time. They tried to do something with medium-sized businesses, but the experience was rather negative. And large private businesses in Russia believe that space will not bring them the desired profit.

https://www.theinteldrop.org/2024/09/15/alexander-gorbunov-will-go-to-the-iss-to-rescue-the-american-crew-of-the-starliner-spacecraft/

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