No Need For Concern
Interesting trivia, also from MSNBC, but by the far-more-talented James Oberg:
Veteran Cosmonaut Nikolia Budarin, the sole Russian member of the Expedition 6 crew, will command the Soyuz TMA-1 capsule when he and his stationmates return to Earth early next month.
" Only twice before in the history of the Russian human space program has a non-pilot cosmonaut commanded a Soyuz vehicle. Both missions, in 1979 and 1980, turned out to be very unlucky. On one, a maneuvering engine exploded, and the men had to make an emergency landing. On the other, a seemingly routine landing suddenly turned hazardous when the soft-landing engine failed and the capsule smashed into the ground with bone-jarring force.
These failures were only coincidentally associated with who was in charge of the mission. So unless Budarin is overly superstitious, he and his shipmates should have nothing to worry about. If there is any reason for concern, it rests with the novelty of their new-model Soyuz TMA-1 spacecraft, which had never been flight-tested before its current mission — and with any possible quality repercussions on its manufacture due to the near-bankrupt state of the Russian space industry."
On an interesting side note, and American astronaut will have to be waiting for Pettit and Bowersox upon their landing with visas and passports, since they weren't planning on travelling abroad when they left in November.

:: :: 11:44 :: David :: [permalink] ::