Slashdot Mirror
Crew of 'Soyuz' Spacecraft Establish Contact After Failed Launch (theguardian.com)
A Russian-American space crew have been forced to make an emergency landing in Kazakhstan after their Soyuz rocket suffered a failure shortly after launching from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in one of the most serious space incidents in recent years. From a report: The launch began as a routine affair. Missions bound for the International Space Station (ISS) have been conducted every few months for the past 20 years. But 119 seconds into Thursday's flight, mission controllers on the Nasa broadcast began to speak of a failure. Shaky footage from the capsule's cabin seen during the live broadcast appeared to show objects floating mid-launch. The crew told mission control they felt weightless, an indication of a problem during that stage of the flight. Agitated voices flooding the radio link between mission control and the capsule could be heard on the Nasa broadcast. Details and the exact sequence of events remain unclear, but shortly afterwards the crew initiated an abort and ejected their capsule from the rocket. Judging by the time at which the failure took place, it involved separation of the rocket's second stage -- just before the ship would have ignited the third stage for its final kick to exit the atmosphere. A commentator on Nasa's live broadcast later said that rescue teams had reached the capsule's landing site and the two-person crew were in "good condition."
All sides have every incentive to play up the "the crew is safe" aspect, but there's frequently injuries associated with these aborts, and sometimes long-term ones. I hope they're actually in good health after this.
"Close the door! What, were you born in a barn?" -- Police chief, "Jesus Christ Supercop"
This always happens when you forget to check for a full tank of gas before a long trip.
brainwashing works well on human subject, only specially train candidates are able to resist
Looks like no ISS crew exchanges for a while until they determine the cause and fix it. Although supply should not be too much of a problem, although some scrambling might be necessary.
Wings and wheels get you some nice qualities for certain missions (see the X-37 and fly-back booster designs like the XS-1), but for crew safety, it's really nice to be able to just pull the crew module up and away.
brainwashing works well on human subject, only specially train candidates are able to resist
Soon this world will belong to the trains. Choo choo mother fucker.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
They will not go to space today.
Did they try hitting it with a hammer? American components, Russian components, all made in Taiwan.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
Are you implying that this was a fake Soyuz, masquerading as the real thing?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Your mom had a train run on her last night.
Judge Kavanaugh? That you buddy?
Russia needs to get the Poroshenko suppporters out of their rocket factories. The incidents of sabotage are just getting worse and worse. One would think space is offlimits in the sabotage war going on between US and Russia but the Nazis runnignUkraine today did not get the memo. One must love Hillary's foreign policy choices. Giving weapons to Al Qaeda in Syria and to Nazis in Ukraine.
**Life is too short to be serious**
Just like they did with the ISS
https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/space/space-station-hole-deliberate-says-russian-space-agency-head/news-story/4eb0d7c7e8e047a224dae77bcc0e7216.
Capt. Picard: I understand what you've done here, Q. But I think the lesson could have been learned without the loss of 18 members of my crew.
Q: If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid.
I have a big trampoline in the backyard, I’ll let the Russians and NASA use it for a minimal fee. What are the alternatives to getting men into space? Starliner? Dragon crew module? Chinese copies of the Soyuz? I think my trampoline is the safest method.
Except for the full diaper..
No idea really what I'm talking about here, but what it sounds like to me is that it could have been way worse. They were at second stage separation and ignition, right? So they were well away from the launch area, but not so close to leaving the atmosphere. I'd say if there's a time the launch vehicle is going to fail on you, that's probably the best time, you can return to Earth relatively safely, not having to worry about an uncontrolled re-entry or being at too low an altitude for any parachutes to deploy properly. Also, the engine(s) either shut down on their own, or were shut down in a controlled manner safely, either of which is a hell of a lot better than having them explode on you. As for the rest, I guess what pilots have always said applies here: any landing you can walk away from is a good landing. An expensive failure to be sure, but nobody died.
Eject! Damn well better, too!
He probably can't answer because he blacked out.
Where is the unedited video footage, the link in the summary is only 56 seconds long and doesn't show any of what happened.
The wikipedia article on this event suggests that the current crew might have to return to Earth in mid-December. The given explanation is that the Soyuz spacecraft that they would need to return on has only a 200 day lifespan, expiring in December. Hmm...
I'll be their spacesuits aren't so shiny-white after that episode...
NASA went to the shuttle, in part, after some really scary capsule action (look up Apollo15, which trashed one of its parachutes with propellant, and would have killed the crew had the damage spread or the extra chute not been there).
Shuttles were unique in having no safe abort during the 1st two minutes (a design trade-off and cost savings). Other shuttle designs that were considered but not selected did indeed have abort capabilities and the DreamChaser mini shuttle being developed by Sierra Nevada is completely capable of aborting, just like any capsule, even from the pad.
In point of fact ANY winged vehicle or even lifting body, like shuttles or the DreamChaser, if designed with abort capabilities would have a gentle abort mode because the vehicle can develop significant lift from airspeed during descent. Capsules, like this Soyuz, cannot do this and the aport modes are therefore rather brutal ballistic entries. There were scenarios on Apollo and Mercury where an improperly controlled ballistic entry could be so severe it would kill the crew just from the G forces. An abort like this on something like Dream Chaser would probably not exceed 3 G's.
That's Justice Kavanaugh to you, buddy!
Old aviator joke
And any landing where you can use the aircraft again is a great one. Probably almost as old, but I only heard that addendum recently.
Here are a couple videos of the 1983 pad abort of Soyuz 7K-ST No. 16L / Soyuz T-10-1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...