UPDATE, 6:36 PM: Today’s Progress launch failure is already causing considerable political fallout. Are you kidding me? Why don’t you guys in the House worry about the crappy economy before you decide to diss the Russian space program?
UPDATE, 6:47 PM: Today’s rocket failure has prompted Russia’s space program to halt its manned spaceflight program temporarily. The rocket which launches Progress cargo vessels also launches manned Soyuz missions. No word yet on how this may affect future ISS missions. Keep reading This Space Available for future updates.
Emily Carney is a writer, space enthusiast, and creator of the This Space Available space blog, published since 2010. In January 2019, Emily’s This Space Available blog was incorporated into the National Space Society’s blog. The content of Emily’s blog can be accessed via the This Space Available blog category.
Note: The views expressed in This Space Available are those of the author and should not be considered as representing the positions or views of the National Space Society.
2 thoughts on “My Thoughts On Russia’s Space Program”
Great post! And I agree. Just google for 'Delta launch failure' and find interesting recent YouTube footage of several epic US launch vehicle explosions and expensive payload losses. And that's just 'Delta'…
Thanks! Overall the launch success rate worldwide is 90% I think (a buddy sent me some data) which is pretty great given the inherent risks of using propellants, etc. I feel like these things sometimes happen and just cannot be predicted (on both sides). Unfortunately, with the end of the shuttle program, this was bad timing. I feel bad for the Russian space program because this casts them in an unflattering light, which isn't fair to them.