ISS Crew Will Soon Benefit From New Emergency Lifeboat

Each Soyuz spacecraft can hold up to three passengers. Two or three of the craft are also docked with the ISS at all times. This creates a limit as to how big the ISS crew can be as each person is required to have a seat waiting for them on an escape vehicle.The new ship is called the CST-100 Starliner, and it seats up to seven astronauts. It could more than double the potential size of the ISS crew. Similar to Soyuz, it is launched into space by a multi-stage rocket. It then docks with ISS and remains until their return trip. While there, it provides emergency shelter during an accident on the ISS. Or it can serve as an emergency lifeboat back to Earth should a catastrophic event happen.

The privately designed and built ships could begin service for NASA crew as soon as next year. Other nations involved in the ISS, as well as the European Space Agency, will likely start sending crew up in the CST-100 as well. Its design is far more modern than Soyuz, though that vehicle has certainly served as a workhorse for decades.

One of the most important requisites of these vehicles, technically speaking, is that they be able to switch on quickly. This should be possible even after months docked in zero power mode. No doubt, this is something anyone would want in their new escape pod.