The irreplaceable “Union”: why the USA cannot create a safe ship

Rivals in the space race, the USSR and the United States, went different ways. The Soviet Union relied on one-time manned flights, in which the spent stages burn up in the atmosphere, and the astronauts return in a special apparatus. The United States has invested tremendous funds in the program of reusable shuttles that can land entirely. Two disasters of the American shuttles, Challenger and Columbia, claimed the lives of 14 people and questioned the feasibility of continuing to use reusable spacecraft. In 2011, the shuttle program in the United States was finally phased out.





Since then, American astronauts fly to the ISS, buying tickets at Roscosmos. One seat on the Soyuz costs Washington $ 83 million. Pleasure is not cheap, and the question of the international prestige of the United States of America as a space power is being called into question. Plus, the sanctions standoff with Russia adds a risk factor to remain without a “cabman” at the most inopportune moment.

Therefore, the United States made a strategic decision to create its own spacecraft, which should surpass such a reliable, but rather aged Russian “Soyuz”. The Americans did not decide to put all their eggs in one basket, so NASA concluded contracts right away with Boeing and SpaceX.

Starliner (CST-100) - This is a project of Boeing Corporation. The spacecraft will have to deliver 4 astronauts and 100 kilograms of payload to the ISS at a time. Starliner will be partially reusable. It was assumed that a partially reusable ship would take off in 2014, but it did not work out. Launches are regularly rescheduled. In 2018, Boeing representatives admitted that when testing the emergency rescue system, a certain “anomaly” was discovered. The terms of the manned launch were again postponed to the end of the summer of 2019.


There are problems with the safety of the crew and its direct competitor from SpaceX.

Crew Dragon (Dragon-2) - the brainchild of "PR genius" of the American billionaire Ilon Mask. The project was presented in 2014. A reusable spacecraft should deliver 7 astronauts to the ISS. SpaceX also intends to use the device for commercial flights of the moon with tourists on board. His first test flight without a crew took place in March of this year and was successful. It seemed that the days of the Russian “Union” were finally numbered.


But then everything went wrong. To obtain a NASA license for manned flights, SpaceX had to introduce a workable crew emergency rescue system, which is activated by shooting a capsule with astronauts. However, during the test tests on April 20, a special liquid engine not only did not separate the descent vehicle, but also exploded with it. Once again, a certain "anomaly" occurred.

The American edition of Florida Today summarized:



So far, the United States is unable to provide its cosmonauts with safe flights to the ISS. The timing of the manned launch can again be rescheduled. So, in the next year or two, the United States will not succeed in abandoning the obsolete, but such a safe “Union”. Even the recent accident of the Russian ship on October 11, 2018, did not lead to casualties. The system recognized the problems and automatically separated the capsule from the Russian Alexei Ovchinin and the American Nick Haig, who, after a successful landing, did not even need medical attention.