Met on the ground by this:
Posted on 04/19/2008 6:18:40 PM PDT by don-o
MOSCOW - A Russian capsule carrying South Korea's first astronaut touched down 260 miles off target in northern Kazakhstan on Saturday after hurtling through the atmosphere in a bone-jarring descent from the international space station.
It was the second time in a row — and the third since 2003 — that the Soyuz landing went awry.
Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said the condition of the crew — South Korean bioengineer Yi So-yeon, American astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko — was satisfactory, though the three had been subjected to severe gravitational forces during the re-entry.
The Russian TMA-11 craft touched down at 4:51 a.m. EDT about 260 miles off its mark, Lyndin said, a highly unusual distance given how precisely engineers plan for such landings. It was also around 20 minutes later than scheduled. Search helicopters then took 25 minutes to locate the capsule and determine the crew was unharmed.
Officials said the craft followed a so-called "ballistic re-entry" — a very steep trajectory that subjects the crew to extreme physical force. Lyndin said the crew had experienced gravitational forces up to 10 times those on Earth during the 3 1/2 hour descent.
The crew were being examined on site by medical officials, and were later to return to Moscow for further evaluation.
"The most important thing is that the crew is healthy and well," Federal Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov told reporters. "The landing occurred normally, but according to a back-up plan — the descent was a ballistic trajectory."
Perminov said engineers would examine the capsule to determine what caused the glitch, though he blamed the Soyuz crew for not informing Mission Control about the unusual descent.
Later, Perminov referred to a naval superstition that having women aboard a ship was bad luck when asked about the presence of two women on the Soyuz.
"You know in Russia, there are certain bad omens about this sort of thing, but thank God that everything worked out successfully," he said. "Of course in the future, we will work somehow to ensure that the number of women will not surpass" the number of men.
Challenged by a reporter, Perminov responded: "This isn't discrimination. I'm just saying that when a majority (of the crew) is female, sometimes certain kinds of unsanctioned behavior or something else occurs, that's what I'm talking about." He did not elaborate.
Yi traveled to the station on April 10, along with cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, who have replaced Whitson and Malenchenko. South Korea paid Russia $20 million for Yi's flight.
In South Korea, several hundred people gathered at the Seoul's Olympic Park to watch Yi's return on a giant television screen, clapping and cheering after a broadcaster reported the landing.
"I'm happy and feel grateful as she safely returned," Yi's mother, Jung Geum-sun, told the SBS television network. "I want to hug her, tell her: 'you worked hard.'"
Whitson and Malenchenko spent roughly six months performing experiments and maintaining the orbiting station and were replaced by Volkov and Kononenko. They joined American astronaut Garrett Reisman, who arrived last month on the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour.
According to NASA, Whitson, 48, set a new American record for cumulative time in space — 377 days.
In October, a technical glitch sent a Soyuz spacecraft carrying Malaysia's first space traveler and two Russian cosmonauts on a steeper-than-normal path during their return to Earth.
A similar problem happened in May 2003 when the crew also experienced a steep, off-course landing. It then took salvage crews several hours to locate the spacecraft because of communications problems.
Despite the mishaps, the Russian space program has a reputation for reliability.
The single-use Soyuz and Progress vehicles have long been the workhorses of the space station program, regularly shuttling people and cargo to the orbiting outpost. They took on greater importance following the grounding of the U.S. space shuttle fleet in the wake of the 2003 Columbia disaster.
Met on the ground by this:
Did the pilot train at Delta?
“during the 3 1/2 hour descent”
Hmmmmm.
Very Nice! High five!.
The money paragraphs:
“Later, Perminov referred to a naval superstition that having women aboard a ship was bad luck when asked about the presence of two women on the Soyuz.
“You know in Russia, there are certain bad omens about this sort of thing, but thank God that everything worked out successfully,” he said. “Of course in the future, we will work somehow to ensure that the number of women will not surpass” the number of men.
Challenged by a reporter, Perminov responded: “This isn’t discrimination. I’m just saying that when a majority (of the crew) is female, sometimes certain kinds of unsanctioned behavior or something else occurs, that’s what I’m talking about.” He did not elaborate.”
Oh boy.
Happened to me the last time I went to Kazakhstan.
Look like we're not paying enough for the "A-ride".
I am pretty sure there is no such thing. Gravity is basically constant. There were, no doubt, some serious forces jostling them around. Gravity was not the culprit.
Myself, I am glad to see that Peggy is back on terra firma....way to long up there...re adapt to 1G Peg and get back to enjoying some good Mexican food back in Big H.
Must be the Russian flight training they get: Pilots are trained on the airplane rides at the ever popular Moscow Circus; physical training consists of 6 monthe of training- two months in warm weather gear and four months in heavy snowsuits; Parachute training consists of jumping off a 4 story building without a parachute; landing in water is done by simulating a Houdini trick-slipping out of handcuffs while in a locked steel cage 10 feet underwater; landing in a hostile country while under ground fire conditions is simulated by a parachute jump into Poland.
After all that training, about 18 months, they get a chest medal that every Russian astronaut craves: a red balloon
A change of pants and they should be fine.
“I am pretty sure there is no such thing. Gravity is basically constant”
Gravity sucks.
Koreans are bad drivers. Just ask anyone in California! :0)
My understanding is that instead of aerodynamically cruising through the upper atmosphere and slowing steadily they dropped ballistically and were subjected to more intense g-forces as they slowed more rapidly.
The big story according to AP is that a foreign national was involved in a landing off course.
Details to follow...
The big story to me is that a US Citizen wsa subject to ten Gs during a landing that was off course.
Details to follow...
Thus, wind resistance caused the problem, not gravity. In the term "g-force', the "g" stands for "gravity". But gravity is the relative measure of the other force (i.e. 20g is 20 times the force of gravity.) Gravity is not the cause of the g-force (except of course when the force is 1g and it is gravity.)
It is a reference to “g forces,” which are acceleration forces measured in terms of Earth’s gravity. You are correct, though, that their usage is technically incorrect.
It sure does!
When you consider all the misery gravity has been directly responsible for; embarrassing pratfalls, avalanches, drooping body parts, building collapses, suicide by jumpers, collisions with asteroids, and that time at the wedding when my aunt Marge's bloomers draped themselves over her shoes as the photo of the ensemble was taken.
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