NASA Confident In Soyuz Return To Flight

The head of manned missions for NASA told a congressional panel Wednesday his agency is confident Russian engineers can safely and reliably transport astronauts to the International Space Station despite the Aug. 24 failure of a Russian rocket.

William H. Gerstenmaier told members of a House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee the Russians have kept NASA “well-informed” about the incident, appear to have zeroed in on the cause, and have taken important steps to prevent future problems.

“NASA’s confident that our Russian partners identified the most likely failure cause and have a sound return-to-flight plan,” Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Human Explorations and Operations, told lawmakers.

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