A Soyuz spacecraft that landed nearly 300 miles off course on Saturday apparently re-entered the atmosphere hatch first with a propulsion unit still attached, according to published reports.
CBS News reports that the Soyuz descent capsule - carrying Peggy Whitson, Yuri Malenchenko and Yi So-yeon home from the International Space Station - had difficulty separating from its propulsion module. The spacecraft re-entered the top of the atmosphere in an unusual orientation until the propulsion unit broke away, something it is designed to do in such a situation. The Soyuz then righted itself with its heat shield down.
The “ballistic” re-entry subjected the three astronauts to high G forces. CBS News quotes Whitson as saying that a meter in the spacecraft read 8.2 G’s.
The Russian Interfax news agency is quoting an unnamed Russian space official as saying the crew was in serious danger, according to the Associated Press. The hatch suffered major damage, as did a valve that equalizes pressure between the inside and outside of the ship. An antenna melted away, preventing communication between the capsule and Mission Control in Moscow.
Continue reading ‘Reports: Soyuz Re-entered Atmosphere Hatch First’
MSNBC’s James Oberg has an analysis of Saturday’s mishap involving a Soyuz spacecraft that experienced a high-G re-entry and landed 260 miles off course. Apparently, things were worse than originally reported - including a brush fire that burned the parachute and filled the capsule with smoke, and a confused Mission Control that lost track of the spacecraft.
The three-person crew - ISS Commander Peggy Whitson, Russian Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko, and South Korean bioengineer Yi So-yeon -was subjected to about nine times the force of gravity. Yi, the only rookie on the flight, said she was scared but reassured by the calm of her colleagues during the bone-jarring descent. “I looked at the others and I pretended to be OK,” she said during a press conference Monday.
Oberg speculates that Soyuz’s autopilot malfunctioned, forcing the spacecraft into an emergency, ballistic descent. This is the second straight time that an emergency landing occurred, and the third time in five years. Oberg said Russia is facing a challenge of ramping up production of the usually reliable spacecraft amid plans to double the International Space Station’s crew from three to six and to retire the space shuttle in 2010. Meanwhile, Russia is facing a wave of retirements among its space workers and the need to hire younger, less experienced engineers and technicians.
Russian space agency chief Anatoly Perminov put forth a rather bizarre theory about why a Soyuz spacecraft suffered a malfunction on Saturday, subjecting its crew to a punishing re-entry while landing 260 miles off target:
A dangerous technical glitch that’s occurred three times in five years? Naaah. There were too many women on board.
“You know in Russia, there are certain bad omens about this sort of thing, but thank God that everything worked out successfully,” the Associated Press quoted Perminov as saying. “Of course in the future, we will work somehow to ensure that the number of women will not surpass” the number of male astronauts.
The Soyuz was returning from the International Space Station with two female astronauts - ISS commander Peggy Whitson and South Korean bioengineer Yi So-yeon - as well as Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko. A malfunction caused the Soyuz to undergo a steep “ballistic” reentry, subjecting the astronauts to up to 10 times the force of gravity.
Reporters were apparently startled by Perminov’s remarks, which referring to an old naval superstition that having women aboard a ship is bad luck. When challenged by a reporter, the Russian space chief denied any sexism.
“This isn’t discrimination,” he insisted. “I’m just saying that when a majority (of the crew) is female, sometimes certain kinds of unsanctioned behavior or something else occurs, that’s what I’m talking about.” Perminov, probably realizing he had said too much already, didn’t elaborate any further.
The last Soyuz to return from ISS suffered a similar malfunction in October, as did a flight back in 2003. Officials said they would investigate the cause of the latest problem.
A Soyuz spacecraft carrying U.S. space station commander Peggy Whitson and South Korea’s first astronaut landed 260 miles off course in Kazakhstan on Saturday after a re-entry that subjected the crew to as much as 10 times the force of gravity.
The Associate Press quotes Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin as calling the crew’s condition “satisfactory.” Whitson, South Korean bioengineer Yi So-yeon, and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko were being examined on-site by medical personnel and will be later flown to Moscow for further evaluation.
The Soyuz suffered a malfunction that sent it into a steep “ballistic re-entry,” subjecting the crew to high G forces. The last Soyuz to return from the International Space Station suffered a similar malfunction, as did one in May 2003.
European and Russian space companies are studying designs for a new crew vehicle for possible launch aboard an Ariane 5, Rob Coppinger reports over on his Hyperbola blog.
The study involves a group of European companies headed by Thales Alenia Space and EADS Astrium that is working with Russia’s Energia and S. P. Korolev. A number of designs are being considered, including one similar to NASA’s Apollo and Orion capsules.
One particularly intriguing aspect is that engineers studied building a lunar version of the Russian Soyuz crew transport. However, they rejected the idea because problems arose with the vehicle’s thermal protection system and other changes required to fly to the moon.
Virginia-based Space Adventures is planning to use a Soyuz variant to fly tourists around the moon. Coppinger’s report raises some interesting questions about just how much modification the vehicle will require and what that might cost.
Russian space officials said on Friday they may not be able to continue launching space tourists to the International Space Station after the crew size aboard the orbiting laboratory increases from three to six in 2010, according to the Associated Press.
“We will continue flying tourists to the international space station in accordance with the existing programs, but we may have problems with it starting from 2010 because of planned increase of the ISS’ crew,” said Anatoly Perminov, chief of the Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos.
This could be bad news for Reston, Virginia-based Space Adventures, which has already flown five wealthy private citizens to the station. Software guru Richard Garriott, who is scheduled to fly in October, would not be affected by the change.
Meanwhile, Agence France Presse reports that Russia is appealing to its ISS partners to continue using the station until 2020, longer than originally planned. Station construction has fallen behind schedule; Russia will not complete installation of its ISS research module until 2015.
A Soyuz rocket lifted off from the Baikonaur Cosmodrome on Tuesday carrying a new crew to the International Space Station. Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko were joined by South Korea’s Yi So-yeon, a 29-year-old bioengineering student, on the Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft.
Volkov and Kononenko will join American Garrett Reisman as the new crew ISS crew. Yi will return to Earth with current ISS crew members Yuri Malenchenko and Peggy Whitson on April 19 aboard the Soyuz now docked at the station.
Yi is the first South Korean in space. Volkov is the first second-generation space explorer. His father Alexander logged 391 days in space on three flights during the 1980’s and 1990’s.
Russian technicians have rolled out a Soyuz rocket to the launch pad for an historic liftoff that will send the first South Korean and the first second-generation cosmonaut into orbit.
Yi So-yeon, a South Korean bioengineering student, will join cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko on a Soyuz TMA-12 flight to the International Space Station.
Volkov is the first second-generation space explorer. His father Alexander logged 391 days in space on three flights during the 1980’s and 1990’s. He was on hand Saturday to watch his son’s Soyuz rocket rolled out to the launch pad under a clear blue sky.
The Times of India has a brief report indicating the country may send an astronaut to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The news follows a meeting between Russian and Indian space officials in Moscow. Negotiations are reported to be in the early stages.
In April 1984, India’s first astronaut, Rakesh Sharma, flew aboard Soyuz T-11 to the Salyut 7 space station, where he spent 8 days.
Andrei Kislyakov has an interesting analysis on the RIA Novosti website about Russia’s future role in the International Space Station project. Although there are fears in the West about the country’s growing role in the program, some in Russia worry their involvement could decline in the future.
The recent launch of Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle resupply ship has subtly shifted the balance among the partners. Europe will be playing a larger role in station operations, a role that could eventually expand to flying astronauts to the facility aboard a human-rated ATV.
To date, crew transfers and cargo resupply have been handled by the American space shuttle and the Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft. However, America plans to retire the shuttles in 2010, and it could be five years before the successor vehicle, Orion, flies crews to ISS.
Continue reading ‘Russia: Feeling a Tad Slighted?’
