Soyuz capsule carrying South Korea's first astronaut lands off target in bone-jarring descent

Star Tribune ^ | 04/19/08 | MIKE ECKEL

[Jonah Hex]

Well, there was that one time in the lake... but agreed, that was an accident.

[BenLurkin]

Ground crew help South Korea's first astronaut Yi So-yeon after landing in northern Kazakhstan Saturday April 19, 2008. The Soyuz capsule carrying South Korea's first astronaut landed in northern Kazakhstan Saturday, several hundred kilometers off-target, Russian space officials said. 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 G-forces during the re-entry. (AP Photo/Shamil Zhumatov, Pool)

[BenLurkin]

Space agency officials help American astronaut Peggy Whitson, as she walks out of the plane just after arrival at the Chkalovsky airport near Star City, on Saturday April 19. 2008. A Russian space capsule touched down in Kazakhstan on Saturday after hurtling through Earth's atmosphere in a steeper-than-normal descent, subjecting the three-nation-crew to severe G-forces and landing hundreds of kilometers (miles) off target. It was the second time in a row - and the third since 2003 - that the Soyuz landing went awry, though none are believed to have caused permanent medical problems for the crews. Saturday's mission saw the return to Earth of South Korea's first astronaut, Yi So-yeon. She spent 10 days in space before joining U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko in the 3 1/2-hour, bone-jarring descent from the international space station. (AP Photo / Mikhail Metzel)

[caver]

“Russian capsules have always landed on ground.”

I didn’t know that. Learn something every day!

[ReignOfError]

Wow, I figured these things landed in the ocean? Hitting hard ground probably was a rough landing.

The US landed its disposable spacecraft in the oceans. The Soviets feared that the US Navy could get to its spaceship first, so they landed within their own borders.

It's a rough landing, but only one comonaut has died after re-entry -- in the very first Soyuz, when the chute failed to open. In all fairness, hitting the ocean without a parachute wouldn't be a much softer landing, and would also be a certain fatality.

Soyuz, like the AK-47, is a well-tested design, less elegant and less capable than their Western counterparts, but more robust when things don't go according to plan.

[onedoug]

From a Russian spacecraft to a Russian plane. These people have nerves of steel.

[Calvin Locke]

What about the three that asphyxiated when a purge valve opened too soon?

[Jonah Hex]

Technically, that was just prior to reentry following separation from the orbital module (Soyuz 11). Komarov was the only cosmonaut to buy it after reentry.

[American in Israel]

Let us hope their accuracy will be as good when they load them with nukes. But then they will be using American technology, thanks to Clintoon and the multiple satellite launch technology sale to Moscow fiasco.

[American in Israel]

I believe that they aim for land intentionaly. If they hit the ocean, they dont float too well.

At least they hit land!

[Calvin Locke]

Hmmmm, I could have sworn they were well into the "atmosphere".

The Soviets/Russians seem to have problems with timing, whether it's the retrorockets, or explosive bolts.

One can only hope the same craftsmanship can be found in the conventional explosives of their nuclear warheads.

IIRC, the Apollo capsules had enough reserve O2 (@5psi) to maintain pressure for 5 minutes with a 1/2" hole - theoretically long enough to don pressure suits.

Or, in the then pressure suit deprived Soyuz's case, maybe enough to finish manually closing the fresh air valve. But I believe the Soviet capsules were normally pressurized to one atmosphere.

[ReignOfError]

What about the three that asphyxiated when a purge valve opened too soon?

They were dead long before they hit the ground -- I didn't mention them because the issue was the hard landing.

Both the US and USSR rushed the space race. The US had a lot fewer casualties, whether due to greater skill, greater luck, or both. It is cruelly ironic that, for all our technological superiority, most of America's space travel fatalities came after the last of the Soviet/Russian ones.

Of course, the Shuttle was obsolete the day it launched, and it's unconscionable that we're only now beginning to look at a replacement, but that's another rant.

[anymouse]

The elegance of the Soyuz design is fascinating to anyone allowed to examine it in detail. Just about anything that can break or fail has an alternate way to accomplish the task. Simple modular mechanical devices and electrical systems that can be serviced by moderately skilled technicians, in hours instead of days. They transport Soyuz rocket and capsules by standard rail all the way up to the launch pad. They have launched in blizzards. They don’t do a countdown, they just launch when it is time to launch. And their safety record is better than ours.

[RightWhale]

Malenchenko said the astronauts had been able to climb unaided from the capsule when they made their landing on the snowy Kazakh steppe more than 400 kilometres (248 miles) off target — to the bemusement of a local mayor and residents who drove out to meet them.

“They were very surprised. One of them asked if it was a boat,” said Malenchenko.

“When we said we’d come from space... they didn’t understand,” he said.

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Still a few humans on earth who aren’t quite keeping up with the times