Yesterday, October 30, 2011, the Russian space agency Roscosmos successfully launched a new Progress spacecraft on a Soyuz rocket, the same kind of rocket that failed in August and caused such worry. This means it looks like the Russians have indeed figured out what went wrong in the previous launch and fixed the issue. I'll be happier with two successful launches rather than one -- they may have gotten it right by accident -- but still, I bet a lot of folks at NASA are breathing easier now, and this will ease discussion of de-crewing the ISS, which NASA was considering a few months ago.
The Progress is in orbit and scheduled to dock with the ISS on November 2. It's carrying nearly 3 tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the astronauts. Because of this success, another rocket launch is planned on November 13, carrying three more astronauts up ...
