“I wasn't even aware that the main chute had opened”
British astronaut Tim Peake momentarily feared his main parachute had failed to open as he made his re-entry to Earth
What happened?
Travelling back from the ISS in the small Soyuz capsule with his crew mates, Tim Peake suddenly realised that he hadn't felt the main parachute opening, causing him to momentarily worry.
What mission were they on?
Peake was returning home from Expedition 46/47 on 18 June 2016. “Working and living on the Iss is the best place you could possibly wish, as a professional, to be. You are in an environment where you are so well supported; you are very aware you are doing absolute cutting-edge technology. the descent is a really exciting ride. In actual fact the undocking is fairly uneventful, and the first couple of orbits in space are uneventful. You're just waiting for that de-orbit burn.
”And it's from the de-orbit burn onwards that things get really exciting. the de-orbit burn is quite a gentle burn, so it's not like you feel a huge amount of deceleration during that. But if things are going to go wrong on landing, they will probably go wrong during that de-orbit burn. It's somewhere where you are very, very aware of controlling all the systems and making sure everything is functioning normally, because if that burn goes long or if goes short, you're going to miss your target, and your re-entry profile will be very different from what it should be.
“But I was aware, having spoken to lots of astronauts about the descent, what to expect. separation was very dynamic and again, in my previous military career I have had the pleasure of flying some russian helicopters, so I'm very familiar with russian engineering and russian technology, and it's robust. It works very well but it's very solid, and when a solid spacecraft is designed to break into three parts, it doesn't do it quietly. It does it with a number of pyrotechnic bolts that all go off one after the other, sounding like a very heavy machine gun, and the spacecraft really does blow itself apart, which is really quite exciting to be in the centre of. And these pyrotechnic bolts are only a few millimetres of metal away from your ear when they go off.
“from then on the spacecraft is tumbling in a fairly controlled manner, just waiting to enter the Earth's atmosphere. It's a great thing being sat next to the window because you're able to look out, and at that point I started seeing sparks and flames coming off because all of the multilayer insulation around the spacecraft was burning away. so it's very exciting to see that, and again I was warned about that and told that was absolutely normal – [we] expect to see flames coming past the window, waiting for the gs to build up, [knowing we] haven't really entered the Earth's atmosphere.
“But you're down to almost 100 kilometres (62 miles). I looked out of the window and, having spent six months watching planet Earth from
400 kilometres (249 miles) in a very controlled altitude, to look out of the window and see Earth approaching at 100 kilometres (62 miles) in what looked like a fairly uncontrolled altitude was really quite surprising. It really gave a very strong sensation that you are just falling back to the planet, and then the gs start to build up.
“the gs come on fairly slowly, so you get plenty of time to get used to that. But towards the end you are doing four or so gs, which after six months at zero gravity is quite a lot, so you're having to control your breathing and work on that. But the capsule gets very hot, extremely hot, and so you're working hard against the g, you're working hard against the heat; your visors are down and you don't have much ventilation inside. You're having to read the systems inside and check the spacecraft, and so there's an awful lot going on. And at the same time you're trying to memorise the experience.
“It's a wonderful ride, and then probably the most dynamic part is when the parachute opens and you get about 20 seconds where the capsule is being completely flung around and you just have to really hold on and wait for it all to stop. I was told that it would stop with a big jolt as the main chute opened, but in our case it didn't. the main chute must have been a very gentle opening, so I wasn't even aware that the main chute had opened. And the clock was running, and I'm very aware of exactly what should happen and at exactly what time. the time had gone beyond the point at which the main chute had opened.
“so for a second I was concerned. I looked across at Yuri [Malenchenko]. He was just sitting there so relaxed and cool as he always is. so I thought if we didn't have a main parachute opened he wouldn't be looking as cool as that, so I was quite comfortable at that stage that we must be under the main canopy. And then you get a few moments of respite when you can gather your thoughts and get yourself ready for the landing.”