Why hasn the United States developed a way to rescue astronauts who are in trouble on space missions?
NASA has a range of systems that could come to the aid of endangered astronauts. Following the Shuttle Challenger accident, NASA developed an emergency escape hatch for the Shuttle fleet that enables crew members to exit from the side of a Shuttle on a parachute during certain types of emergencies in the later parts of a landing. Aboard the Space Station, early permanent crews will have access to a modified Russian Soyuz spacecraft as an emergency rescue vehicle should they need to leave the outpost when a Space Shuttle is not docked to it. A more advanced rescue vehicle may be developed in the future.
A. NASA has a range of systems that could come to the aid of endangered astronauts. Following the Shuttle Challenger accident, NASA developed an emergency escape hatch for the Shuttle fleet that enables crewmembers to exit from the side of a Shuttle on a parachute during certain types of emergencies in the later parts of a landing. Aboard the Space Station, resident crews have access to a modified Russian Soyuz spacecraft as an emergency rescue vehicle should they need to leave the outpost when a Space Shuttle is not docked to it. A more advanced rescue vehicle may be developed in the future.
