Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!gatech!rutgers!att!cbnews!nak
From: nak@cbnews.ATT.COM (Neil A. Kirby)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: What if...
Message-ID: <5161@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 27 Mar 89 21:49:36 GMT
References: <5042@cbnews.ATT.COM> <15.UUL1.3#5131@mvac.UUCP>
Reply-To: nak@cbnews.ATT.COM (Neil A. Kirby)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 22

In article <15.UUL1.3#5131@mvac.UUCP> mvac!thomas@udel.edu writes:
[ double >> are mine, single are Tom's ]

>>     What you *might* see is a Soyouz [sp] launch.  Or whatever it is that
>>     the Soviets use as their people taxi.  They have been launching those
>I don't think so.  There is no way that the two craft could dock.  Even if
>the astronauts did an EVA to get to the Soyuz craft, there wouldn't be
>enough room for a Soviet pilot plus astronauts.  Don't the Soyuz craft
>only hold two people?
	
	It can re-enter with three.  That's just the re-entry part.  The
    orbital part can hold some others, but it would be a crowd.  Once
    aboard the Soviets fire up another a few weeks later and take the 
    crews down separately after some resupply.  As Henry said, orbital
    mechanics are the hard part.  I think the EVA could be done if the
    Soviets brought spare suits with them.

	They lost three cosmonaughts in the seventies, as I recall, when a
    hatch didn't seal.

	Neil Kirby
	...cbsck!nak