http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-space-station-may-evacuated-nov-153619971.htmlYou can't take the sky from me.
After the Soyuz crash last week, manned Russian launches are on hold. There's a 6 man crew on the ISS right now, 3 of them scheduled to be replaced in September. Without a manned vehicle to cycle 3 down and the current capsule down, all 6 must come at once.
They can't loiter on-site any longer because Soyuz capsules are only rated for 6 months of continuous space exposure. Seals break down and so on. So they all have to come back at once before the capsule environmental exposure time expires.
The big stinker?
Japan and Europe have their own cargo ships and rockets, for unmanned use only. Commercial front-runner Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, plans to launch a space station supply ship from Cape Canaveral at the end of November. That would be put on hold if no one is on board to receive the vessel.
Soyuz is a revenue-raiser for Russia. They love taking on the outsourced space work. I imagine they aren't keen to have a private-corporation competitor to split the loads. Suppose they'll drag their feet with regard to the investigation to force an evacuation? That ends up meaning additional launches for Russia and potential crushing of a rival that will be taking over ISS deliveries of supplies and manned missions.
We're going to lose space forever if we don't seize it this generation.
