Astronauts safe after emergency landing
It was a terrifying day, but not a tragic one. Something went very wrong — a failure of unknown origin only two minutes after liftoff of a Russian Soyuz rocket — but the escape system worked perfectly.
U.S. astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin had made it about halfway to space before suddenly finding themselves going in the other direction.
As the rocket soared on a mission to the International Space Station, there was a malfunction, triggering an automatic abort command that forced the two-member crew to make a harrowing emergency landing in their capsule. They fell about 50 kilometres back to the surface — 300 kilometres from the launch site in the steppes of Kazakhstan.
They were immediately located by rescue teams, retrieved from the capsule with no apparent injuries, and flown back to the launch site for an emotional reunion with their families.
The failure of the Soyuz MS-10 rocket immediately led to the grounding of the Soyuz fleet and will have cascading effects for U.S. and Russian space programs, along with their international partners. The Soyuz is the only way to get to and from the station.
“It wasn’t quite the day that we planned, but it is great to have Nick and Alexey at least back on the ground,” said Kenny Todd, who directs space station operations for NASA. “This is a very difficult business that we’re in. And it can absolutely humble you.”
The launch looked good until a red light illuminated inside the capsule.
“Failure of the booster,” a translator called out at mission control near Moscow, according to a transcript on Russian state TV.
The three-stage Soyuz booster had suffered an unspecified failure of its second stage. Russian news reports indicated that one of its four first-stage engines might have failed to jettison in sync with others, resulting in the second stage’s shutdown.
The computers then took over. The capsule automatically separated from the rocket. The crew felt a jolt and then quickly reported being weightless: They were in free fall back to Earth.
The crew members then initiated a “ballistic” trajectory that put Hague and Ovchinin under more than six times the force of gravity and put the capsule into a spin.
“We are getting ready for the G loads,” Ovchinin reported to mission control. “G load is 6.7.”
Over the radio, he declared dryly, “Vehicle malfunction. That was a quick flight.”
The men were briefly out of contact. NASA’s deputy chief astronaut, Reid Wiseman, said his heart was pounding as he wondered where the capsule would come down. The desert? The mountains? At that point only gravity was in control, and rescue teams in helicopters raced to where they thought the capsule would land.
Parachutes deployed automatically. The grey-coloured capsule tumbled onto grassy flatlands. As night fell in Central Asia, Hague and Ovchinin were being examined by medical officials and would soon likely return to Russia to the space training facility in Star City.
Right now the space station has a crew of three — an American, a German and a Russian. They may find their mission extended, but at some point they will need to return to Earth. Thursday’s accident led NASA officials to acknowledge that they and their partners might need to bring everyone home and hope that the station can function safely with no one onboard, relying solely on commands from the ground.
On the orbiting space station, the three crew members were kept informed of the events on Earth.
“The boys have landed,” mission control told the astronauts, who arrived at the space station in June and were scheduled to return Dec. 13.
Russian officials said crewed space launches have been suspended pending an investigation into the malfunction. Interfax also said all uncrewed launches could be halted for the rest of the year, citing space program sources.
Meanwhile, Canadian officials were assessing the impact on astronaut David Saint-Jacques’ upcoming space voyage.
Saint-Jacques, 48, of StLambert, Que. was part of the backup crew for Thursday’s failed space flight and was on site for the launch. He is scheduled to be aboard a Dec. 20 launch to the space station from the Russialeased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
It was not clear Thursday whether the failure would delay the launch for what would be Saint-Jacques’ first trip to the International Space Station.
Gilles Leclerc, director general of space exploration at the Canadian Space Agency, said the Russians have a good track record of identifying and quickly resolving problems.
IT WASN’T QUITE THE DAY THAT WE PLANNED, BUT IT IS GREAT TO HAVE NICK AND ALEXEY AT LEAST BACK ON THE GROUND. THIS IS A VERY DIFFICULT BUSINESS THAT WE’RE IN. AND IT CAN ABSOLUTELY HUMBLE YOU. — KENNY TODD, NASA OPERATIONS MANAGER