Long before Atlantis touched down for the last time, the discussion about how the U.S. would take crews to and from the international space station had been going on in full force. The government might falter on NASA's development of the new space launch system; the multipurpose crew vehicle might still have years to go in its development schedule, but commercial efforts appeared to be progressing. And one thing was sure — until the next U.S. launch vehicle and crew carrier were ready, the venerable Russian Soyuz-Progress combination would guarantee us assured access to the ISS. It was this assurance that made us comfortable with the notion of standing down the space shuttle. But now, things seem to be slowly unraveling. On August 24, an unmanned Progress spacecraft carrying three tons of food and supplies to the space station failed to achieve orbit, as the third stage of the Soyuz-U rocket shut down prematurely. As the experts work to determine the exact cause of the problem, the vehicles are grounded. Nobody will be visiting the station anytime soon.
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