Posted by Ray Katz in current, history
Impressive manual docking of Soyuz with ISS
Soyuz TMA-14 heads for a manual docking at the ISS
The media have been describing it as raising serious questions about the reliability of the Soyuz spacecraft, but I consider today’s manual docking with the International Space Station to be a triumph.
There was, indeed, a problem. The automatic docking system failed, and an actual human being—a cosmonaut—performed a successful docking manually.
Man and machine
To me, that’s great. That means the man and machine do a great job backing each other up. Gennady Padalka fired the engines for the docking, substituting for a computer program that failed.
Back in 1966, Buzz Aldrin helped dock Gemini 12 manually, when its automated systems failed. Nobody complained about that.
Soyuz has a strong safety record
Certainly, the system that failed needs to be reviewed and fixed. But that shouldn’t make us worry about the Russian spacecraft—the Soyuz—which has a long and impressive safety record. Since 1971, nobody has died aboard a Soyuz. The American space shuttle has a worse record.
