U.S. astronaut recalls close call
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The NASA astronaut who survived last week’s failed launch and emergency landing knew he needed to stay calm.
Air Force Col. Nick Hague on Tuesday described the closest call of his career: His space capsule violently ripped from his damaged rocket shortly after liftoff, then plunged back to Earth.
Hague said he and his commander, Russian Alexei Ovchinin, were flung from side to side and shoved back hard into their seats, as the drama unfolded 31 miles above Kazakhstan last Thursday. One of the four strap-on boosters failed to separate properly two minutes into the flight to the International Space Station and apparently struck the core rocket stage, resulting instantaneously in a rare launch abort.
It was the first aborted launch for the Russians in 35 years and only the third in history.
Hague — the first American to experience a launch abort like this — communicated in Russian throughout the ordeal.
“We knew that if we wanted to be successful, we needed to stay calm and we needed to execute the procedures in front of us as smoothly and efficiently as we could,” Hague told The Associated Press from Houston.
Between the abort and touchdown, Hague looked out the window to make sure the capsule’s systems were operating properly and to check their landing. They braced for the extreme force of the unusually steep descent and the shock of the parachutes popping open.
They landed on the smooth, flat terrain of Kazakhstan.
“You can imagine the scene,” Hague said. “We’re kind of hanging upside-down from our straps … and we looked at each other, big grins. He holds out a hand. I shake his hand. And then we start cracking a few jokes between us about how short our flight was.”
Neither man was injured.
Hague, 43, said he’s dealt with in-flight emergencies during his Air Force career, but nothing like this.
“Any time you’re launching yourself into space and your booster has a problem when you’re going 1,800 meters per second, things are pretty dynamic and they happen very fast,” he said.
A Russian accident investigation is continuing, with all crew launches to the space station on hold.