[FPSPACE] Soyuz docking: manual - reason?

[Chris Jones]

E.P. Grondine wrote:
> Hi all -
> 
> Through the haze of my stroke, I seem to recall that the electronics for 
> the Soyuz docking devices came from the Ukraine, and after the collapse 
> of the Soviet Union there was some problem. I think they were replaced 
> with Russian systems, but again, I had a stroke, so you'd have to go 
> back and check...

I believe they've gone to recycling the systems, removing them from both
Progress and Soyuz before undocking and returning them to earth.  According
to Wikipedia, the Kurs (or at least its antenna) is now Russian built.

Since the shuttle is required to return the recycled pieces to earth (I
guess Soyuz isn't big enough to handle it), it's not clear what's going
to be done when it stops flying to the station.