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> are there launch failure scenarios that involve complete loss of crew but successful orbit? Explosive decompression. Not sure if shuttle crews wore pressure
by nullwasamistake 7y ago
> are there launch failure scenarios that involve complete loss of crew but successful orbit?
Explosive decompression. Not sure if shuttle crews wore pressure suits. Happened on a Russian mission once, during reentry. They opened the capsule on landing and everyone was dead.
- darkpuma 7y agoSoyuz 11. It wasn't an explosive decompression per se, merely a rapid decompression, but no less lethal to a crew without oxygen masks. Decompression can be explosive, but in space you'd only be dropping from 1 atmosphere to 0, which isn't that far to drop. For decompression to truly be explosive, a greater pressure differential is required. In the infamous Byford Dolphin incident, four saturation divers were depressurized from 9 atmospheres down to 1 in an instant, and that was a sufficient pressure differential to explode them.
- dredmorbius 7y agoNB: The Apollo Command Mudule operated at 5 PSI in spave, about 34% og atmospheric sea level pressure. Over 25,000 feet / 7600 meters elevation. The LM operated at 3.5 PSI. The Space Shuttle and ISS operate at 14.7 PSI -- normal sea level atmospheric pressure.
- darkpuma 7y agoMir, the Soyuz fleet and the Salyut stations were operating at sea level pressure too. I'm not sure how influential that was in the Shuttle's design, but it certainly simplified docking the Shuttle to Mir. The pressure difference between Apollo and Soyuz was a source of complication for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Program.
- EvanAnderson 7y agoRe: the Byford Dolphin incident - That was absolutely horrifying. I'd never heard if it before. Yikes.
- masonic 7y agoByford Dolphin incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byford_Dolphin#Diving_bell_accident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byford_Dolphin#Diving_bell_acc...