Space station could be abandoned in November [Spaceflight Now]
HOUSTON -- Astronauts may need to temporarily withdraw from the International Space Station before the end of this year if Russia is unable to resume manned flights of its Soyuz rocket after a failed cargo launch last week, according to the NASA official in charge of the outpost.
Despite a delivery of important logistics by the final space shuttle mission in July, safety concerns with landing Soyuz capsules in the middle of winter could force the space station to fly unmanned beginning in November, according to Michael Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager.
"Logistically, we can support [operations] almost forever, but eventually if we don't see the Soyuz spacecraft, we'll probably going to unmanned ops before the end of the year," Suffredini said in an interview Thursday, one day after Russia lost a Soyuz rocket with an automated Progress resupply ship bound for the space station.
この記事によると、NASAとしては11月の古川宇宙飛行士達の帰還までにソユーズ打ち上げが再開されない場合は一時的にISSを無人運用する可能性があるとしています。まあ確かにISSは建造がある程度進んで飛行士が常駐するようになるまでは当然無人だったわけで、科学実験などはともかく管制には特に問題ないでしょうけど。
