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It's amazing that the escape mechanisms worked, though we have yet to see the crew's conditions. I thought these mechanisms were only put in place to put peopl
by supahfly_remix 8y ago
It's amazing that the escape mechanisms worked, though we have yet to see the crew's conditions. I thought these mechanisms were only put in place to put people at ease but were never actually going to work (kind of like how the seats in commercial jets serve as flotation devices but how likely are they to be used in most flights).
- nolok 8y agoWasn't this Soyuz escape mechanism already triggered in 1975 ?
- piva00 8y agoI think it was in 1983 but not the same mechanism, it was the Launch Escape System, this time (as far as I've read in the news) it was a failure of a stage that put the capsule in a ballistic trajectory instead of in orbit.
- azernik 8y agoThe LES is the only way the capsule can separate from a malfunctioning booster. That activation happened to be on the ground, so the ballistic trajectory was rather short and dominated by the velocity the LES itself imparted; but activate it for an in-flight failure like this one and you will be off on a more substantial suborbital trajectory.
- rory096 8y agoThis is false. LES tower jettison was prior to the failure today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIxkVAXPYPc&t=134 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIxkVAXPYPc&t=134
- maxxxxx 8y agoIt sounds like you are right.
- mhandley 8y agoI'm not sure about that - the NASA commentator says the LES tower was jettisoned pretty much at the time the booster appears to have failed. From her later comment, she doesn't seem to have seen that a failure happened until some time afterwards, even though the Russian's are clearly saying a failure happened, so I think she's reading from a script of what should be happening at that moment. So I would not treat her saying the LES tower jettison occurred as being certain.
- rory096 8y agoI agree with your interpretation of the tape audio, but the 'ballistic trajectory' statements from Roscosmos/NASA tell us that it was not rocket-powered. Indications are that the anomaly happened at booster sep, which is a few seconds after LES jettison. http://www.russianspaceweb.com/soyuz_launch.html http://www.russianspaceweb.com/soyuz_launch.html
- lacksconfidence 8y agoThat page says LES can be jettisoned on either side of separation depending on flight profile.
- azernik 8y agoThe tower is not the only component of the Soyuz LES - after the extra thrust is needed, the tower is jettisoned and the LES relies on the engines in a "shroud" around the capsules. See the first segment in this video for an explanation of the system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMUJ004Dr8Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMUJ004Dr8Q
- larkeith 8y agoTo add to the other poster, while the LES was jettisoned, in this case it seems that the booster failed to ignite, which allowed normal staging separation.
- rory096 8y agoThat's not right. The stage sep was the Soyuz strap-on boosters separating from the sustainer stage. It was already ignited.
- concerned_user 8y agoThere is no ignition on Soyuz, because they couldn't find a reliable way to ignite the engine when it was designed so second stage works from the start, it is the central part of the rocket, and 4 boosters around it. Second stage was shut down because of the problems with a booster separation.
- azernik 8y agoJust the tower, not the whole LES. See this video for an illustration of this rather exotic system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMUJ004Dr8Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMUJ004Dr8Q
- JshWright 8y agoThe other way (which is what happened here) is simply detaching from the booster using the normal mechanism.
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y agoI seriously doubt they would lie to the crew about the efficacy of the escape system. And if they knew it didn't actually work they may as well save the weight and not have one at all...
- supahfly_remix 8y agoI didn't write that the crew was lied to. The situation could be that it could have a 50% survival rate. That is, worth including the design but not a panacea.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- maxxxxx 8y agoI think the escape towers have always been considered as workable. The Space Shuttle had a few emergency modes that were considered as very questionable. For example there was one where they would turn the Shuttle around and fly back to the launch site which was considered as very difficult to say the least.
- sbradford26 8y agoI believe this is the abort scenario that you are referencing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwn3kk-q1YU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwn3kk-q1YU
- maxxxxx 8y agoYes. RTLS return to launch site.
- mikeash 8y agoThe commander of the first Shuttle flight said, “RTLS requires continuous miracles interspersed with acts of God to be successful.”
- JshWright 8y agoIt also had significant periods of the ascent where there simply no abort mode possible.
- ceejayoz 8y agoCrew are in good shape (sitting up and having their photos taken). https://twitter.com/roscosmos/status/1050351423022669825 https://twitter.com/roscosmos/status/1050351423022669825