re: Soyuz Operations Crew Size
More exciting than its performance figures, to me anyway, is the size of its operations crew. From this article:
Advances in computer technology mean that launch teams can be cut from 70 people to 20. Only two experts are needed to guide its flight, compared with 40 previously.
That is impressive -- that's in the same neighborhood as what SpaceX is promising, and less than half of the 50-person "absolute minimum size for any launch crew" which I've seen posited by the LockMart / Boeing crowd. I've said many times before that the secret of cheap Russian launchers is not cheap labor, but rather damned good designs -- and this only serves to confirm by views.
Cheers,
Nathan.