Russia is the sole nation capable of delivering humans to the ISS .. really?

The six-person multinational crew on the International Space Station (ISS) will need to wait a little longer for their comrades to come by. The next scheduled manned flight to ISS was originaly planned for 22 September followed by a cargo vessel with new supplies on 28 October. However Russia has grounded its fleet of Soyuz rockets after an unmanned spacecraft carrying cargo for the space station crashed shortly following its launch. A decision has been taken to halt the launch of Soyuz carrier rockets until the reasons for the accident become clear.

The 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s first spiced by embarrassing accident?!

On Wednesday, the Russian federal space agency (Roscosmos) said thecargo ship was not placed in the correct orbit by its rocket and fell back to Earth. However the cause of the accident is still unknown. Emergency workers are searching for wreckage of the Progress supply craft in Siberia.

Latest mishaps of the Russian space programme.

In December last year, three satellites crucial for providing Russia with global sat-nav coverage failed shortly after launch. The head of Roscosmos, Anatoly Perminov, was replaced in the wake of the accident.

This month, a telecommunications satellite was placed in the wrong orbit by its Russian Proton launcher. A fault with the booster was blamed.