spacetoday.net: NASA: ISS could be uncrewed in November

Posted: Tue, Aug 30, 2011, 8:18 AM ET (1218 GMT)
ISS during STS-135 mission (NASA)

Crews could be forced to abandon the International Space Station, at least temporarily, by mid-November if the Soyuz launch vehicle does not return to service by then, NASA's space station manager said Monday. Three of the current six people on the ISS were scheduled to return home on September 8, but that return will likely be delayed to mid-September, Mike Suffredini said. The launch of a replacement crew, which had been planned for September 22, will be delayed until Russian investigators complete their analysis into the cause of last week's failure of a Soyuz rocket carrying a Progress spacecraft. If the rocket isn't ready for crewed launches by mid-November, including at least two successful unmanned launches, the other three crew on the ISS will return home as previously scheduled, leaving the station unoccupied for the first time in over a decade. Suffredini said Russian officials were cautiously optimistic the Soyuz would return to flight before mid-November, but that they were prepared to control the station remotely for a time if not.