THE lifeboat is not holed, so the ship can sail. That鈥檚 NASA鈥檚 assessment of the Soyuz capsule that will rescue crew from the International Space Station (ISS) in an emergency.
Two incidents had raised concerns over the craft now moored at the station. In October 2007 and April 2008, Soyuz craft descended to Earth far more steeply than planned 鈥� and way off course. The first event was blamed on frayed wiring; the Russians are still investigating the second incident.
Despite this, on Monday NASA gave the go-ahead for the shuttle Discovery鈥檚 mission to the ISS on 31 May. NASA鈥檚 operations chief Bill Gerstenmaier said that with a less than 1 per cent chance of a shuttle problem requiring an alternative return craft, the Soyuz 鈥渉as the reliability that we think it needs for a back-up system鈥�.
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