Miracle on edge of space
2 crew hurtle down to earth Capsule drama at 31 miles up
TWO astronauts hurtled back down to earth yesterday in a capsule that had reached 3,000mph before the rocket failed at 31 miles up.
The Russian Soyuz MS-10 had blasted off carrying a Russian and an American to the International Space Station.
But 114 seconds later their capsule had to be jettisoned when the
Soyuz booster went into emergency shutdown.
Amazingly, astronauts Alexey Ovchinin, 47, and Nick Hague, 43, survived the ordeal – and are said good condition”.
As they plummeted to the ground they experienced G-forces of around 6.7 – 4G can lead to blackout for pilots. Footage from in the capsule showed them being violently shaken seconds before the capsule was jettisoned.
Parachutes were eventually deployed as their capsule went into a “ballistic descent”, landing at a much sharper than normal angle, according to Nasa.
Paratroopers were dropped over the desert steppe crash area – 250 miles from the launch site – and the men were quickly picked up. Images of the lucky pair were released hours later and showed them eating a meal.
Russia has now suspended all manned space launches and an inquiry will try to determine whether safety regulations were violated during the rocket’s construction.
It had taken off for a six-hour journey from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the orbiting ISS. The two astronauts were due to join three other ISS CRASH Rescuers at scene to be “in