Miracle escape for Space Station astronauts as rocket fails mid-launch: American and Russian [tr]

UK Daily Mail ^ | October 11, 2018 | George Martin

[C19fan]

Two astronauts are alive after dramatically aborting their voyage to the International Space Station when their Russian Soyuz rocket malfunctioned while it carried them into orbit at 4,970mph.

American Nick Hague and Russian Aleksey Ovchinin were forced to abort their mission on the cusp of space, at an altitude of approximately 50km (164,000ft).

They landed safely in Kazakhstan after a 'ballistic re-entry', during which they experienced forces of up to 7G.

Video footage from the launch at the Baikonur Cosmodrome shows a large plume of smoke coming from the rocket at the moment it failed and footage from inside the capsule shows the two astronauts being violently shaken about.

[Moonman62]

Wow.

This is the first I’ve heard of this.

[chajin]

News here in central FL is wall-to-wall Hurricane Michael (understandable); thank God the astronauts’ lives were spared.

[C19fan]

Remarkable safety technology. Back in the old days those two men would have been dead.

[Quality_Not_Quantity]

They need to buy the parachute packers a case of vodka!

[Red Badger]

Gonna need new underwear................

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Hell of a video.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6264339/Rocket-launch-booster-malfunction-forces-astronauts-return-Earth-ballistic-entry.html

[a fool in paradise]

Yep

It will be interesting to see if this makes the national news cycle

[Baynative]

As the media continues to feed the mob their daily dose of Russia horrors, it is interesting to be reminded of how we are working together to explore the cosmos.

[Moonman62]

Remarkable safety technology. Back in the old days those two men would have been dead.

...

Actually, this is old days technology and that’s why they are alive.

If they’d been on the Shuttle they would be dead.

This was the American astronaut’s first launch.

There are pictures of both astronauts back at the launch complex. They look great. Just another day at the office.

[Moonman62]

Thanks.

The rocket appeared to be fishtailing, then the escape system activated, followed by the rocket disintegrating.

[mabarker1]

As I was flipping channels this AM on of the local snewz stations had maybe a 00:30 blip. And that Both Crew were safe. That was All.

Thank You God for bringing these Men Safety back to Earth.

(My eyes are hurting I will be back later.)

[BenLurkin]

Yikes

[Ann Archy]

A MIRACLE!!!~! Thank you, GOD!!

[ConservativeMind]

Amazing story! Great outcome!

[Moonman62]

According to the announcer the main engines were supposed to burn for 2 minutes 6 seconds. The escape tower seemed to activate about 10 seconds before that.

This is only the second time an escape system has activated. Both were on Russian rockets and both times the crews were saved.

[mabarker1]

From Thread on Space Shuttle Challenger

[kanawa]

I saw a report saying, “Reports say that the two experienced a force of 21g during their escape - 21 times the force of gravity.”

[C19fan]

Can a human survive that? Another article said 9 gs.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

If you watch long enough, those Ivanaughts got a hell of a bumpy ride too. Those guys have some brass ones.