NASA Considering Buying More Soyuz Seats with SpaceX, Boeing Capsule Delays

Amid uncertainty about the Commercial Crew schedule, NASA has issued a pre-solitication procurement notice to secure additional rides with the Russians for its astronauts.

“NASA is considering contracting with the State Space Corporation ‘Roscosmos’ for these services on a sole source basis for two (2) Soyuz seats and associated services to the International Space Station (ISS) on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft vehicle. This transportation would be for one crewmember in the Fall of 2019 and one crew member in the Spring of 2020,” the agency said in the Feb. 13 notice.

link.

Hole in Soyuz Capsule Caused by Drill During Production

A story in the normally authoritative RIA Novosti website says that the leak in the orbital module of a Soyuz transport docked to the International Space Station was caused by a worker who mistakenly drilled a hole through the hull during production, not by a debris strike as originally believed.

The story says the worker patched the hole with glue. However, the glue was apparently sucked out into the vacuum of space, causing a small leak that lowered the atmospheric pressure on the space station that houses six people.

link.

Soyuz Launched Satellite Failed to Separate From Upper Stage

One of the satellites launched on December 5 by a Russian Soyuz-2.1b rocket did not separate from the upper block, and may be sunk, a source in the space industry said Sunday.

On Saturday, a Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket laden with two defense satellites was launched from the Russian Plesetsk Cosmodrome.

"One of the space apparatuses of the military designation is experiencing issues. According to the preliminary data, it did not separate from the Volga upper stage. At the moment, there are discussions taking place on the removal from orbit and subsequent sinking of the Volga upper stage and the satellite in the interests of the Russian Defense Ministry," the source told RIA Novosti.

link.

more info.