Russians to help NASA – Republic

Source: SpaceX

The company Roskosmos is prepared to deliver cargo to the International Space Station, after a not handle this myself NASA ship.

– If Americans need to deliver anything to the station then of course we will help -zadeklarował representative Roskosmosu today, Interfax agency said.

After the loss of the cargo ship Dragon, NASA does not have the supply of equipment and supplies to the US segment of the station. In addition to water, food and oxygen Dragon was also transported suits to go into space. The Americans assured that the crew has enough supplies for several months. However, all the equipment was lost Research, who also was on board the Dragon.

The cause loss of the Dragon was the failure of the launch vehicle Falcon 9 SpaceX is a private company production. The company halted rocket flights for several months. The cause of the outbreak of the rockets could be additional pressure in containers with liquid oxygen.

The troubles SpaceX planned for the first time to compete against United Launch Alliance (a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing) with the launch of the GPS III satellites. Currently, ULA is a monopolist in of translating military satellites into space.

Since the end of the shuttle program, NASA does not have to supply the people and equipment into space. It uses the Russian Proton carrier rocket-M. One flight will cost approx. 95 million dollars. But the Russians also do not cope well. In late April Roskosmos has lost at least $ 100 million. as a result of the failure of his mission transport ship Progress M-27M.

The ship was delivered to the station 2.5 tonnes of goods, including 500 kg of fuel, 50 kg of air, 420 kg of water, oxygen cylinders, apparatus and materials for research. It reached orbit launch vehicle Soyuz-2.1a. During the first cycle of the Earth, it turned out that the ship is not in contact and has not reached the desired orbit.

It opened two antennas rate system that allow you to determine the distance between the Earth and the speed of movement around the planet. He was also faulty engine operation third member carrier rocket ship and fall in rotation. Any attempt to stabilize the ship failed.

Market cosmic transport is estimated at 5.4 billion dollars. per annum and heavily dependent on Russian rockets.