The Shuttle Has Landed: Welcome to America's Soyuz Era

Mothballing the shuttles was fine, but it's a little as if America opened an orbital B&B and then junked the jitneys that were needed to get the vacationers back and forth. And with at least 10 more three-person crews queuing up to take their turns aboard in the next few years, those space buses will be sorely missed. The good news is, there's an unlimited number of Russian Soyuz spacecraft to fill the gap. The bad news is, well, there's an unlimited number of Russian Soyuz spacecraft to fill the gap. If the shuttles were business class and the old Apollos were coach, the Soyuz is a little like hiding in the wheel well for a coast-to-coast flight, even if it's a wheel well with an impeccable safety record — at least recently.

The first Soyuz was launched on April 23, 1967 and carried cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov into space. The mission also ended on April 23, 1967 and so, sadly, did Komarov's life, after a series malfunctions occurred in orbit, leading to an emergency reentry. The descent was comparatively routine, but the ship's parachutes never opened, causing the Soyuz to make what engineers call a "ballistic reentry," a return to Earth that is every bit as deadly as it sounds.

Things got better after that and eight different generations of Soyuz over the past four decades have made the craft the workhorse of the Russian manned space program. But a safe ride does not have to mean a comfortable ride, and Soyuz does not waste a lot of money on frills.

The space shuttle can accommodate six astronauts and has a massive habitable volume of 2,500 cu. ft (71.5 cu. meter). Soyuz holds three people in a 141 cu. ft. (4 cu. meter) sphere. OK, it's unfair to compare a reusable space plane to a throwaway pod, but even the old Apollos had about 210 cu. ft. (6 cu. meter) of elbow room. Astronauts riding a Soyuz sit with their knees drawn partway up to their chests and must remain more or less that way throughout the entire flight....