Oct 11, 2018 10:34 PM
A Soyuz with two astronauts aboard (one Russian, one American) aborted their launch after the booster on their Soyuz rocket failed today at 164,000 feet and upwards of 4,000 mph. The capsule that the two were in executed a successful abort separation from the fragmenting booster and made a ballistic descent. Both astronauts are ok and in good health.
Astronauts still have the "right stuff". Russian astronaut Aleksey Ovchinin is reported to have calmly informed the ground: 'An accident with the booster, 2 minutes, 45 seconds. That was a quick flight'.
The Russians aren't happy and have grounded their Soyuz fleet pending an accident inquiry. That's problematic since this vehicle is currently the only way for astronauts to reach the Space Station and orbit more generally. The SpaceX and Boeing manned capsules aren't scheduled to be carrying astronauts until next year sometime. (SpaceX had been scheduled to do their first manned launch in April, but I heard that it's been moved back to June.) Boeing will probably be launching next summer too.
Maybe that schedule can be brought forward.
Otherwise unless the Soyuz boosters return to service quickly, the astronauts currently on the station will have to remain there until replacements arrive (when and if), or else they will have to evacuate, leaving the station empty, using the two Soyuz capsule "lifeboats" that are already up there.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/astronaut-c...ce-station
https://www.foxnews.com/science/us-russi...cket-fails
https://www.space.com/42097-soyuz-rocket...-crew.html
A Russian video of the launch is here. The failure is right at the end of the live part, with a view inside the ascending capsule showing the astronauts being violently shaken and then a ground camera shot of the booster fragmenting and coming apart. The capsule executed a successful abort which isn't shown while the video goes to a prepared animation of how things should have gone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_conti...nSoFxIYWSg
Astronauts still have the "right stuff". Russian astronaut Aleksey Ovchinin is reported to have calmly informed the ground: 'An accident with the booster, 2 minutes, 45 seconds. That was a quick flight'.
The Russians aren't happy and have grounded their Soyuz fleet pending an accident inquiry. That's problematic since this vehicle is currently the only way for astronauts to reach the Space Station and orbit more generally. The SpaceX and Boeing manned capsules aren't scheduled to be carrying astronauts until next year sometime. (SpaceX had been scheduled to do their first manned launch in April, but I heard that it's been moved back to June.) Boeing will probably be launching next summer too.
Maybe that schedule can be brought forward.
Otherwise unless the Soyuz boosters return to service quickly, the astronauts currently on the station will have to remain there until replacements arrive (when and if), or else they will have to evacuate, leaving the station empty, using the two Soyuz capsule "lifeboats" that are already up there.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/astronaut-c...ce-station
https://www.foxnews.com/science/us-russi...cket-fails
https://www.space.com/42097-soyuz-rocket...-crew.html
A Russian video of the launch is here. The failure is right at the end of the live part, with a view inside the ascending capsule showing the astronauts being violently shaken and then a ground camera shot of the booster fragmenting and coming apart. The capsule executed a successful abort which isn't shown while the video goes to a prepared animation of how things should have gone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_conti...nSoFxIYWSg