Simonyi Arrives At the ISS After Shuttle Lands

RobGoldsmith writes in with news of the further adventures of Charles Simonyi, whose first trip to the ISS we discussed a couple of years ago. The Russian Soyuz vehicle carrying Simonyi and two others docked a day after the US space shuttle Discovery landed in Florida. "Space Adventures, Ltd. ... announced today that its orbital client Charles Simonyi and his crew successfully arrived at the International Space Station after launching on-board the Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 26. The spacecraft docked to the ISS at 9:05 am (EDT) with Dr. Simonyi and Expedition 19 crew members Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and NASA astronaut Michael Barratt. They were greeted at approximately 12:30 p.m. (EDT) by the Expedition 18 crew..."

More to come

[WindBourne]

This is hailed as the end of the tourism. I am guessing that there will be at MOST 3 year delay, and I am starting to think not even that much. The shuttle sounds like it will be extended for 1-2 years due to the ares I delay. In fact, I am guessing that the dems will extend the shuttle UNTIL SpaceX is on-line with crew capability. The shuttle will be used to rotate crews until 2012, and most likely we will plant a dragon on the ISS as a 7 person lifeboat, which will solve the issue of requiring 2 soyuz. We are about to have plenty of up cargo capability (Progress, ATV, HTV, and within another year or two, spaceX and Orbital). SpaceX will be the only down cargo. The important issue is crew. If SpaceX has a number of launches by mid-2011 (when they are suppose to have their human rated capsule ready), then I could see the shuttle being stopped and dragon taking over the western crew.

In addition, Bigelow will almost certainly run their system up once falcon 9 flies.

Tourism is about to make it BIG. It will all be for the bloody rich, but, those same ppl are not impacted on something like this.

Amateur Radio

[caluml]

I'm just hoping he [qrz.com] spends lots of time on the Amateur Radio on the ISS [issfanclub.com], racking up lots of contacts with eager hams on the earth. Like me.