Take off from Baikonur
to reach the International Space Station… Routine? For Soyuz, one could believe it. Until a reality check on October 11, 2018, a few minutes after takeoff. The capsule of Alexei Ovchinin and Nick Hague ejects, they are safe and sound. Thank you backup system!
According to the American definition, they have even (briefly) been in space!
The sky will fall on their heads
When they settle into their Soyuz MS-10 capsule, the American Nick Hague and the Russian Alexei Ovchinin are far from imagining what will really happen on October 11, 2018. Of course, they were prepared to all eventualities, and their training in Star City (near Moscow), which concludes with rigorous practical and theoretical examinations, ended three weeks earlier. Just before their trip to Baikonur took place some protocol visits and medical isolation.
That morning, they made the trip under a bright sun to the launch site, respecting all the “lucky” steps of Russian space travel (including the obligatory pee stop along the bus). They saw their Soyuz-FG rocket vertically for the first time, in its beautiful white/grey/orange livery, and climbed up to sit in their bucket.
They are only two for this mission, following budget cuts on the Russian side. As the countdown ticks away in their helmets, they hear: ” Arming the backup system. “And fortunately, because it will serve. The two passengers do not know it, but the rocket has a problem: one of its four boosters has been incorrectly mounted, and the sensor system which ensures correct separation is forced askew (very little, but that enough).
Houston, we ain’t in space
Liftoff took place as scheduled, at 10:40 a.m. (Paris time), and Soyuz FG rapidly climbed skyward. The flight itself is nothing exceptional, it is the 55and manned takeoff for this version of the launcher, then considered one of the most reliable in the world. Indeed, the 54 previous launches have been successful.
After one minute and 54 seconds of flight, the “safety tower”, located above the fairing of the rocket, is ejected. But fortunately, there is still an emergency system! Because, a few seconds later, it is the separation of the four boosters. Its blocked sensor prevents block D from opening the valve which normally allows it to swing backwards during separation… And wham! it hits the central stage (which flies beyond Mach 5), rips it open and tilts it.
In a split second, long before the astronauts on board could tell anything, the onboard computer ordered an emergency ejection. The central stage of the rocket disintegrates while the two occupants in their capsule are already far away, taken away by the auxiliary ejection engines installed in the fairing. The latter then separates to release the capsule.
Failure or success?
Soyuz MS-10 will reach an altitude of 92 kilometers. And its re-entry profile is not at all the one it uses at the end of an orbital flight. The capsule quickly gets rid of the other elements and places itself “ shield forward “, but the braking is powerful, and the boat climbs to 6.7 G. However, according to Nick Hague, ” it was unusual, but well within the limits of our training “.
The capsule lands under parachutes, still on Kazakh territory. Astronauts will only have to wait 30 minutes for rescue teams. Once out of the capsule, apart from a scraped and swollen knee for the American, the two occupants are safe and sound. ” Alexei could have flown back that day “, even confirms Hague. According to the Russian, they weren’t scared at any time, as their training had prepared them to face every phase of this emergency, which went exactly as it should. This is the paradox here: a bitter failure for the Soyuz FG launcher and a resounding success for the emergency ejection system of the Soyuz capsule.
The incident is making headlines, for good and bad reasons: a few months earlier, a hole had been discovered in an orbiting Soyuz capsule. The American press therefore does not hesitate to make the connection to denounce faulty quality controls and problems for the Russian launcher industry.
The investigation, which will not last a month, will quickly confirm that block D did not eject correctly, and as the latter was recovered from the ground (it is not intact, but the key elements are still in place ), the conclusions will be quickly available. This is an installation fault, and additional checks will be made during assembly to verify that the sensor at the very top of the ball joint that holds the booster in place is properly aligned. For the two astronauts, this affair also illustrates the need for solid and long-term training to prepare the future occupants of the capsules for all scenarios. To do this, they notably participated in sessions with engineers from SpaceX and Boeing.
Training for better and for worse
For Nick Hague, who recounted the accident at a conference last October, “ every space flight, every launch is a test flight “. It was the first activation of such a backup system in 35 years, since Soyuz T-10A (actually the flight has no name) which allowed the crew to escape the full fire of their launcher on the launch pad in Baikonur. But the STS shuttles did not have an emergency ejection system for the crew, which condemned the 7 occupants of Challenger in 1986… A decision already long debated at the time.
The Europeans, who were then working on the design of the Hermes capsule, had completely revised the architecture of the vehicle to integrate there something to protect the crew (which, incidentally, participated in undermining the project). Today, to develop modern capsules, NASA has required emergency ejection systems from all its suppliers. Crew Dragon, Starliner and Orion are equipped with them, and they are all different.
The debate could also return to the front of the stage as SpaceX plans future manned flights with Starship. Indeed, the company does not plan to equip the giant ship with a particular system, counting on the credibility of its flight systems. Still, we may have to remember the day when one of the most reliable launchers of its time disintegrated in flight…
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