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PhreeZone

Soyuz rocket failure

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In what might be the first case that I can recall it seems that the Soyuz rocket that was taking off to the ISS today with two people on board failed shortly after launch and the capsule was sent on a balastic recovery course instead of into space. It looks like everyone landed safely and the abort during launch procedures actually worked as designed.

https://www.space.com/42097-soyuz-rocket-launch-failure-expedition-57-crew.html

Thats sure to make what should have been an exciting event even more so.
Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

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Yeah. You'd want a new pair of trousers after that.

The photo of the astronauts in that article is weird. Instead of smiling and relieved they're staring at each other as though blaming the other guy for the failure. Odd one for NASA to release.

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gowlerk

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Odd one for NASA to release.



Typical American! Wait, you aren't even American! What makes you assume NASA had anything to do with that picture?



It's an understandable mistake given that practically every statement in the article, and most of the other pictures, are credited as coming from NASA. But technically you are correct; the first photo of the not-so-happy looking astronauts came from the Russian agency.
Max Peck
What's the point of having top secret code names, fellas, if we ain't gonna use 'em?

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yoink

Yeah. You'd want a new pair of trousers after that.

The photo of the astronauts in that article is weird. Instead of smiling and relieved they're staring at each other as though blaming the other guy for the failure. Odd one for NASA to release.



Agreed that the photo isn't 'on message', but it's probably just a candid shot of them mid-conversation. It's easy to forget that people don't grin all the time in real life, as they nearly always do when they're looking into a camera lens. :)

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Yep. Details are still sketchy. It looks like it happened right after the boosters (they call them the "first stage") were dropped, and right after the escape tower was jettisoned. Which could make it a booster separation problem. That would make for a very busy minute or so as the Soyuz was detached, the rest of the fairings were ejected, the orbital module and service module were detached and the capsule reoriented for re-entry. Fortunately everyone was OK.

It also means that we have no way to get to the ISS for now, since they've shut down operations to investigate. Both Boeing and SpaceX are about a year away from their first manned flight. (SpaceX is now saying April 19th 2019, but their schedules have a way of slipping.)

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PhreeZone

In what might be the first case that I can recall it seems that the Soyuz rocket that was taking off to the ISS today with two people on board failed shortly after launch and the capsule was sent on a balastic recovery course instead of into space. It looks like everyone landed safely and the abort during launch procedures actually worked as designed.

https://www.space.com/42097-soyuz-rocket-launch-failure-expedition-57-crew.html

That's sure to make what should have been an exciting event even more so.



It's not the first case of a Soyuz crew using the launch escape system, but it's a first for this phase of the flight (airborne, and after the LES was jettisoned). In the other case, the crew also landed safely. Say what you want about the Russians but they sure do build 'em tough.

"The production of Soyuz launchers reached a peak of 60 per year in the early 1980s. It has become the world's most used space launcher, flying over 1700 times, far more than any other rocket. Despite its age and perhaps thanks to its simplicity, this rocket family has been notable for its low cost and high reliability. "

And we (the US) are still grounded and relying 100% upon Roscosmos for ISS crew service missions (now at US$ 100 MILLION per seat).

See the Soyuz flight in 1983, where the booster blew up on the pad. The crew successfully used the LES and landed unharmed.

And of course in both cases (1983 and 2018), parachutes were used :SB|

mh
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"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

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So it is looking more and more like either a collision between a booster and the core after separation, or an incomplete separation by one of the boosters.

It will be interesting to see if this pushes the Boeing and/or SpaceX systems to run their test flights and/or first manned flights sooner. The SpaceX Dragon unmanned test flight is scheduled to leave for the ISS on Jan 2019, and the "max Q abort" test is scheduled for May, with the first manned flight being June. Not sure of the Boeing schedule.

Come to think of it, if the unmanned test flight successfully docks at the station, it might become the new "escape vehicle" if the Soyuz currently on-station times out.

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Indeed. Wonder how long it will take for the investigation and corrective action, if any. It may have been a freak occurrence. Funny things happen in highly aerodynamic regimes which can be difficult to pin down (the dynamics of a parachute deployment are highly fluid as we can see with our down eyes when we initiate). The investigators will have three main things to look at - telemetry, observation of video of the flight, and what's left of the booster (and of course its manufacturing records). Not a job I would want to tackle. It might come down to Ivan having too much vodka the night before he went to work on the boost coupler release mechanism, or something. Who knows?

However, I'm guessing that Roscosmos will have some pretty smart cookies working on the problem because despite the reliability of the Soyuz, there is a lot at stake financially for the Russian Federation. Just like the airlines, if customers lose confidence in the product, insurance will go up, and business will go down. That's not helped by the SpaceX and Boeing products coming on soon.

And if I was on the ISS I would be a little unhappy about the situation.

mh
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"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

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I've always felt that it was a mistake to discontinue the space shuttle program before we had a viable replacement program of our own. Having to rely on the Russians to get us up and back is just, for lack of a better word, moronic.

Thanks, Obama.
"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

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BillyVance

I've always felt that it was a mistake to discontinue the space shuttle program before we had a viable replacement program of our own. Having to rely on the Russians to get us up and back is just, for lack of a better word, moronic.

Thanks, Obama.



The space shuttle was very expensive. Even at $100 million per launch to the russians, we are saving money.
It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

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BillyVance

I've always felt that it was a mistake to discontinue the space shuttle program before we had a viable replacement program of our own. Having to rely on the Russians to get us up and back is just, for lack of a better word, moronic.

Thanks, Obama.




How many Cosmonauts have died flying the Soyuz? How many astronauts have died flying the Shuttle? The time of the Shuttle has come and gone. Privatization of the lift systems is a conservative idea. And not without merit. But the private sector can't compete with NASA, so now we wait for capitalism to work it's magic.

Thanks, Obama. (Even though Bush cancelled the program we may as well thank Barack.)

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I've always felt that it was a mistake to discontinue the space shuttle program before we had a viable replacement program of our own.


The shuttles were starting to time out; they were originally designed to fly through the 1990's and then retire when the next generation of manned transport came out. Keeping them flying past 2011 would have placed astronauts at higher and higher levels of risk. (And they were hideously expensive to operate.) Probably a very good thing that NASA's desire to retire them wasn't overriden by a bureaucrat.

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