Explosion in flight
Soyuz MS-10’s flight on October 11, 2018, was supposed to be a routine mission that would rotate the ISS crew. Russian Alexey Ovchinin and American Tyler Haig were sent into orbit. A container full of food was flying in place of the third cosmonaut, because due to the launch of the Nauka module, Russia postponed the expansion of the ISS crew.
On October 11, 2018, the ship took off with a Soyuz-FG rocket and everything went well for the first two minutes. At 117 seconds into the flight, the side thrusters (first stage) separated and the accident occurred at 118 seconds. Block “D” did not fly from center stage simultaneously with the others, but was delayed. After a while, an explosion occurred, the rocket lost direction and began to rotate rapidly and erratically. But at 123 seconds into the flight, losses were avoided, as the crew activated the emergency rescue system and moved the capsule with people away from the crashing rocket.
As it turned out later, due to incorrect separation of the side accelerator, its sharp tip cut off the second stage.
“The reason for the abnormal separation was that the nozzle cover of the oxidizer tank of block “D” could not be opened due to the deformation of the separation contact sensor rod (6 degrees of bending) that occurred during the assembly of the package.” “At the Baikonur Cosmodrome,” said Oleg Skorobogatov, deputy director of TsNIIMash, head of the emergency commission.
Following the incident, Progress RCC, where Soyuz is manufactured, recertified workers and increased video surveillance of the assembly.
If the ship and its crew had remained on the rocket, there would have been no survivors, but the rescue system developed under the direction of Sergei Korolev once again proved its effectiveness.
Catapult for an astronaut
A thin vertical bar can be seen at the top of the fairing during all manned launches of Soyuz rockets. It is one of the basic components of this system. The rod carries two solid rocket motors with multiple nozzles directed downward at a 30-degree angle. If an emergency occurs from the moment the rocket is refueled to the 161st second of the flight, one of the engines separates the upper two from the lower (instrument and aggregates) compartment of the Soyuz spacecraft, where people are located. head covering.
Emergency Rescue System Diagram
KTRV
At the same time, the lattice stabilizers on the ship are deployed and smaller thrust engines determine the exact trajectory of movement. After the “torn” upper part of the rocket with people inside moves 800 meters upwards and 100 meters sideways, other engines tear off the upper living compartment and the nose fairing of the lander. Then the parachute system comes into play. So astronauts can “launch” a dying rocket like airplane pilots; the only difference is that they recover the entire reusable crew capsule.
However, the Soyuz MS-10 accident occurred at an altitude of approximately 50 km, and the motorized boom was lowered to an altitude of 42 km to save weight. Therefore, other rocket engines on the fairing were used to save people. In the normal case, they push it away from the rocket at an altitude of about 78 km, but their force is enough to tear off the fairing along with part of the ship.
The capsule in which the main crew of ISS-57/58, Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Nick Hague, made a forced landing, October 11, 2023
Central Military District/RIA Novosti press service
This system was developed in the mid-1960s and has operated occasionally but always reliably since then. It first saved people in 1975 when the spent second stage failed to separate from the rocket. Cosmonauts Vasily Lazarev and Oleg Makarov survived, but suffered an overload of more than 20 grams during an unplanned descent due to sudden braking against the atmosphere. This undermined Lazarev’s health, and although he was once part of the ship’s main crew, the flight was canceled and he never had the chance to go into space again.
In 1983 the system saved Vladimir Titov and Gennady Strekalov and this was the only time the engines on the bar worked. Then the rocket exploded on the launch pad, but the rescue system lifted people to a kilometer altitude, where the parachute opened. Finally, the third case occurred in 2018, when an amendment created in 1986 ran for the first time. Then the system was “tested” by a stranger for the first time.
Soyuz is a marvel of engineering. Haig, who will be the first of this spaceflight, said at the NASA briefing: “We tested a system that has not been tested for 35 years.”
How did salvation feel?
“It all happened in a quarter of a second. At first there was a strong side-to-side jolt that seriously affected us. Then we started rolling and I heard a loud beep and saw a flashing red light telling me there was something wrong with the rocket. “Wow. “This really happened,” I distinctly remember thinking. said later in an interview with Forbes.
According to Russian cosmonaut Ovchinin, there was no time to be nervous during the accident and both crew members performed the movements they had been working on during training.
“During the descent, an excessive load was placed on our chest and back. “Well, imagine that a reinforced concrete block weighing 6-7 times your weight is placed on your chest,” he said. shared impressions o.
“Roscosmos”
During the accident, Ovchinin controlled the ship’s main systems, and Haig transmitted information to the ground about the future location of the fall and monitored the altitude to warn the crew about the moment of the fall.
Ovchinin registeredHe said that the American acted professionally and that there was no sign of fear on his face, so he wanted to take the next flight alone with him. And so it happened – they reached the ISS aboard Soyuz MS-12 in March 2019. Later, both cosmonauts were awarded the Order of Courage for their competent and calm actions in an emergency situation.
Source: Gazeta
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.