Successful space station shift change by Russian rocket

The three returning crew members of the International Space Station touched down safely last night, marking another success for Russia's Soyuz spacecraft. Expedition 29 commander Mike Fossum of NASA and flight engineers Satoshi Furukawa, from Japan, and Sergei Volkov, from Russia, landed on the central steppe of Kazakhstan at …

[FuzzyTheBear]

A revolution

Not only 25 years ago this would have been totally out of the question.

Imagine the USA asking russians to carry their men in space ?

That would have been the biggest " Niet " you ever heard.

It shows how much our world changed , sometimes for the better .

One day .. we may live in peace , but we need many more revolutions

in man's thinking to get close to this utopic world.

Let's start small and finish the job in Syria

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

Anyone remember the Apollo-Soyuz project of 1975

Collaboration was possible in space even then

We make small steps, some forward, some backwards. Hopefully our random walk shows net progress.

[naylorjs]

The Soviet Union wouldn't have said "niet", they would have said "da" and then milked it for all the propaganda value that they could.

[John Smith 19]

I'd like them to find out how long one of these really is good for.

Soyuz is rated at 206 days (IIRC) but *why* exactly? It's better than 6 months but why not go for the whole year?

The even in 1975 was the Apollo Soyuz Test Program (ASTP) although no other tests were done.

[CowardlyAndrew]

I suspect the 60's was the big step change for space exploration, the challenge seems to be reproduce that but at a cheaper price.

Suspect we are looking at 100 years for the next big step change, that will allow for safe/quick travel to Mars and beyond.