ROCKET BOUND FOR ISS FAILS, CREW SURVIVES EMERGENCY LANDING
The twoman US-Russian crew of a Soyuz spacecraft en route to the International Space Station survived a dramatic emergency landing in Kazakhstan on Thursday when their rocket failed in mid-air.
US astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin landed safely without harm and rescue crews who raced to locate them on the Kazakh steppe quickly linked up with them, NASA, the U.S. space agency, and Russia’s Roscosmos said.
The emergency occurred as the first and second stages of a booster rocket separated shortly after launch from Kazakhstan’s Soviet-era cosmodrome of Baikonur. The Soyuz capsule carrying the two men separated from the malfunctioning rocket and made what NASA called a steep ballistic descent to Earth with parachutes helping slow its speed. A cloud of sand billowed up as the capsule came down on the desert steppe.
Rescue crews then raced to the scene to retrieve them with reports of paratroopers parachuting to their landing spot.
Footage from inside the Soyuz showed the two men being shaken around at the moment the failure occurred, with their arms and legs flailing. Ovchinin, the Russian cosmonaut, can be heard saying: “That was a quick flight.”
Photographs later released by Roscosmos after the rescue showed the two astronauts smiling and relaxing on sofas at a town near their landing site as they underwent medical tests. Interfax said they would spend one night in hospital.
Moscow immediately suspended all manned space launches.