From: jrfrank@ibm-pc.borg.retro.com   
      
   tmcd@panix.com (Tim McDaniel) wrote in news:ccesh2$vja$1@tmcd.austin.tx.us:   
      
   > In article <2kujs1F6muj8U1@uni-berlin.de>,   
   > Bob Martin  wrote:   
   >>This forced the crew to use the Russian suits, which couldn't talk to   
   >>the American radio equipment at the US airlock.  Ergo, the Russian   
   >>suits had to talk to the Russian radios, which were only in place at   
   >>the Russian airlock.   
   >   
   > *blink*   
   >   
   > *sigh*   
   >   
   > Next questions, then: why can't a Russian radio near the American   
   > airlock transmit 100 feet (or whatever) to the Russian airlock?   
   > And why didn't the International Space Station project consider   
   > International interoperability issues?   
      
   It did, or at least the US did. The US airlock is formally named the Joint   
   Airlock, and was designed to support both the US EMU and the Russian Orlan.   
   In contrast, the Russian airlock has no support for US suits, and no plans   
   to do so.   
      
   As to why the Joint Airlock is currently unable to support Orlan, I don't   
   know. Whatever happened must have been pretty close to launch or after   
   launch; I have read training manuals dated as late as April 2001 (the   
   airlock was launched on STS-104 in July 2001) that describe Orlan   
   operations from the Joint Airlock.   
      
   This topic has come up before in sci.space.*, and IIRC the answer was that   
   the issue was Russian support hardware that was not delivered to the US in   
   time to support the STS-104 launch. NASA decided to launch anyway since ISS   
   did not have *any* airlock at the time, and even an airlock capable only of   
   supporting US suits was still deemed better than no airlock at all. I can't   
   vouch for that answer but it makes sense and is not contradicted by any of   
   the available evidence I can see.   
      
   --   
   JRF   
      
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