nir Posted November 1, 2018 Share Posted November 1, 2018 A Russian Soyuz rocket capsule was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after launch last month because of a faulty sensor, investigators say. Russian officials believe the component was damaged during assembly. They warned that two other Soyuz rockets could be defective, and said additional checks have been introduced. The rocket had been transporting two personnel, one Russian and one American, to the International Space Station (ISS) when they had to abort. The crew members, Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and American astronaut Nick Hague, were then recovered in good health from an escape capsule. The incident, on 11 October, was the first serious launch problem by a manned Soyuz space mission since 1983. The findings of an official investigation into the incident were presented at a press conference on Thursday. Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Wednesday it hopes to resume manned missions with a three-person launch to the ISS on 3 December. That mission was originally scheduled for later in December, but officials want to bring it forward to ensure the station is not left unmanned in autopilot when its current three-man crew depart for Earth. What happened during the flight? The Soyuz-FG rocket launched at 08:40 local time (02:40 GMT) from the Baikanour cosmodrome site on 11 October when the malfunction occurred. About 90 seconds into the rocket's flight, the US space agency Nasa reported a problem with the booster rocket between the first and second stages of separating. Live video of the astronauts inside showed them shaking violently with vibrations caused by the malfunction. After about 114 seconds of flight, the emergency escape system sprang into action, separating the crew capsule from the rocket, which then entered "ballistic descent" before parachuting to earth. The two crew members were then recovered by emergency workers near the Kazakh city of Dzhezkazgan, 400km (250 miles) north-east of the rocket launch site. The two crew members were then recovered by emergency workers near the Kazakh city of Dzhezkazgan, 400km (250 miles) north-east of the rocket launch site. Despite their dramatic descent and landing, both men were recovered unharmed, the space agencies said. What have officials said? The Russian space agency Roscosmos immediately launched an investigation into the rocket failure. Igor Skorobogatov, who headed the inquiry, said on Thursday that the issue was linked to the "deformation" of a sensor part. "It has been proven, fully confirmed, that this happened specifically because of this sensor, and that could only have happened during the package's assembly at the Baikonur cosmodrome," he said. Officials believe the sensor's failure caused a booster rocket from the first stage to malfunction and hit a fuel tank, which led to the loss of stabilisation and the emergency landing. Alexander Lopatin, the deputy head of Roscosmos, said that "appropriate law enforcement authorities" will now look into who was responsible for the assembly error. Russian rockets are currently manufactured inside the country and then transported to the facility in Kazakhstan for assembly and launch. Russia is the only country currently sending crews to the ISS, after Nasa's Space Shuttle programme ended in 2011. Since then, Nasa has paid Russia for seats on its Soyuz rockets to ferry its astronauts to the station. Is the programme safe? Russia maintains its space program is safe despite a number of technical failures in recent years. In August, a hole appeared in a Soyuz capsule already docked to the ISS which had to be patched after it caused a brief loss of air pressure. Officials suggested it may have been deliberate. While space missions may often encounter technical difficulties, fatalities have been relatively rare. The last fatal accident occurred in 2003 when Nasa's Space Shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing seven crew members. Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nir Posted November 2, 2018 Author Share Posted November 2, 2018 Russians trace Soyuz rocket failure to a bent sensor; next crew to launch Dec. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knowledge-Spammer Posted November 2, 2018 Share Posted November 2, 2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vitorio Posted November 2, 2018 Share Posted November 2, 2018 3 hours ago, nir said: Russians trace Soyuz rocket failure to a bent sensor; next crew to launch Dec. 3 2 hours ago, knowledge said: This astronauts are heroes!!! They really risk their lives: ”The last fatal accident occurred in 2003 when Nasa's Space Shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing seven crew members.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knowledge-Spammer Posted November 2, 2018 Share Posted November 2, 2018 russia try and not kill them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jogs Posted November 2, 2018 Share Posted November 2, 2018 Its good that Soyuz has escape module, it saved precious life. Columbia and the Challenger didn't had any escape modules nor do Atlantis & Discovery. Escape modules should have been incorporated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vitorio Posted November 2, 2018 Share Posted November 2, 2018 12 minutes ago, Jogs said: Its good that Soyuz has escape module, it saved precious life. Columbia and the Challenger didn't had any escape modules nor do Atlantis & Discovery. Escape modules should have been incorporated. Following the Challenger disaster, all surviving orbiters were fitted to allow for crew evacuation through the main ingress/egress hatch, although only when the Shuttle was in a controlled glide, as the crew would have had to reach the exit from their seats and jump out. sourse: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Launch_escape_system Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knowledge-Spammer Posted November 2, 2018 Share Posted November 2, 2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nir Posted November 2, 2018 Author Share Posted November 2, 2018 Russia to hold 2 new space launches in wake of Soyuz failure "Russia approved two new space launches for 2018 after it scrapped the launch of Soyuz-FG that forced a U.S. astronaut and Russian cosmonaut to eject from their spacecraft. The Soyuz rocket will send up a robot-controlled cargo ship to the International Space Station, or ISS, on Nov. 16 for a resupply mission. Pending the outcome of that mission, a Dec. 3 launch, manned by cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, NASA astronaut Anne McClain and the Canadian Space Agency's David Saint-Jacques will go to the ISS to relieve its current crew. according to space.com." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nir Posted November 3, 2018 Author Share Posted November 3, 2018 Russia says its doomed rocket was damaged before takeoff, causing launch failure "It was just a couple of days ago that Russian space agency Roscosmos announced that its probe into the Soyuz rocket failure had officially wrapped up. The investigation concluded that a malfunctioning sensor was the culprit, and that it failed to adequately separate the first and second rocket stages, causing one piece of the spacecraft to slam into the second stage. Now, Russia is adding a bit more detail to that explanation, saying that the reason the sensor malfunctioned wasn’t related to manufacturing of the sensor itself. It seems officials have been able to determine that the sensor was actually damaged during assembly of the rocket, long before launch day." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knowledge-Spammer Posted November 7, 2018 Share Posted November 7, 2018 An Arianespace Soyuz rocket, designated flight VS19, was launched from Korou, French Guiana at 00:47 GMT on Tuesday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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