"Miloch" wrote in message news:prfd10025gv@drn.newsguy.com...
>
>more at
> https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/11/dramatic-footage-of-soyuz-accident-shows-rocket-booster-collision/
>
> For the second human launch in a row, there's a likely quality-control
> issue.
A recent Soyuz capsule docked with the ISS was found to contain a tiny hole
through which air was escaping -- and Russian investigators said it looked
to have been deliberately drilled. Is there a saboteur lurking in the
Russian space agency? https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45423225
> On Thursday, Russian space officials held a news conference to lay out
> their findings into an October 11 accident that involved the launch of a
> Soyuz FG rocket and its spacecraft. The crew of NASA astronaut Nick Hague
> and Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin escaped safely, but the rocket was
> destroyed.
>
> The problem, the officials said, boiled down to a "bent" sensor on one of
> the rocket's four boosters that failed to properly signal stage
> separation. This caused one of the booster stages to improperly separate
> from the rocket, which can be seen in the video released by the space
> agency. This booster then struck the core of the rocket, causing a
> significant jolt and triggering one of the Soyuz spacecraft's automatic
> escape systems.
This was almost a repeat performance of something that happened in 1975:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_7K-T_No.39
When the crew realized they weren't going to make it into orbit, they
radioed, "Are we going to land in China?" No response. Again they asked. The
response: "We have a treaty with the Chinese, don't we?" Instead of a normal
re-entry spread out of several minutes, they followed an uncontrolled
ballistic trajectory and decelerated from 10,000 mph to 500 mph in about
thirty seconds. The G-meter in the capsule only went up to 18 Gs. It pegged
and then broke. After the chute popped, they tumbled down a mountainside and
came to a stop at the edge of a cliff. Wolves reportedly circled the capsule
all night. They were finally rescued late the next day.
Try as they might, the Russkies seem to be on a slippery slope:
https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htspace/articles/20181028.aspx
Russia has suspended further manned flights until an answer can be found for
the malfunction...
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