Emergency landing for astronauts as rocket fails

[Gary]

Bit of breaking news and looks like a good outcome

A US and Russian astronaut are making an emergency landing following a rocket failure on a mission to the International Space Station.

Shortly after lift-off, the Soyuz rocket was reported to have suffered significant engine difficulties which has caused the mission to be aborted.

Despite the failure affecting the booster rocket, the crew members are "alive and set to land in Kazakhstan" Russian media reported.

It is understood that helicopters were sent to locate NASA's Nick Hague and Roscosmos' Alexei Ovchinin.

Search and rescue teams have confirmed that the pair have now been located and are alive.

More follows....

https://news.sky.com/story/emergency-la ... s-11523326

[Gary]

Spaceflight now have live text coverage https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/10/10/l ... xpedition/

[Gary]

If you click on the Roscosmos feed on Spaceflight now website skip forward to 3 hour 46 seconds into the coverage, you can see the engine go bang

[paddyboy]

Thanks Gary

Caught it on beeb feed

Thank goodness they are safe

Paddyboy

[Pete_uk]

So, this causes a problem, does it not?

I believe the soyuz thats up there (the one with the hole) is due to come back as they can only spend a finite time in orbit. Is there a separate escape pod that can get all the 'nauts down or will they have to be short staffed for who knows how long?

[toom317]

I think there is a spare pod up there all the time, in case they need to come back in an emergency. At least now we know that at least one part of the abort plan works. Well done to the guys for getting back safely, any landing you can walk away from...

[jem60]

I would be intrigued to learn how this emergency landing occurred. There seems to be no news as to how it was achieved. Did they descend to a soft landing still in the rocket, was an ejection system involved, normal parachute exit etc.????. Anyone have anymore info??.

[slogen51]

I was wondering that as well

I assume they stay in the capsule , jettison the duff engines and deploy the parachutes that would have been used during a normal landing or are they in a separate escape pod?

Or can the capsule eject itself from the top of the stack of engines ?

[James Cutting]

There is an 'emergency escape system' in the rocket, which separates the crew capsule from the rocket. This then lands (with parachutes). More info is on BBC's website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45831110

[quid21]

Yes and the Soyuz capsule has retro rockets that fire just before the capsule hits the ground which softens the bump. That's why Soyuz landings always have big clouds of dust as it lands.