Soyuz lands on target
Posted: Fri, Oct 24, 2008, 8:25 AM ET (1225 GMT)
A Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russian cosmonauts and an American commercial passenger landed safely in Kazakhstan early Friday, avoiding reentry problems that plagued two previous missions. The Soyuz TMA-12 capsule landed on target northeast of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, at 11:37 pm EDT Thursday (0337 GMT Friday). The three men in the capsule, Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononeko and American space tourist Richard Garriott, were all reported to be in good health after landing. Officials said the Soyuz had a normal reentry profile, and the landing was in the targeted zone. Two previous Soyuz spacecraft had suffered ballistic reentries, generating higher g-loads for the crews and causing the capsules to land several hundred kilometers off-target. That problem was linked to a problem with an explosive bolt that prevented the reentry capsule from cleanly separating from its propulsion module. The problem has been fixed on later Soyuz flights, and Volkov and Kononeko performed a spacewalk in July to remove the problematic bolt from their spacecraft.
A Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russian cosmonauts and an American commercial passenger landed safely in Kazakhstan early Friday, avoiding reentry problems that plagued two previous missions. The Soyuz TMA-12 capsule landed on target northeast of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, at 11:37 pm EDT Thursday (0337 GMT Friday). The three men in the capsule, Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononeko and American space tourist Richard Garriott, were all reported to be in good health after landing. Officials said the Soyuz had a normal reentry profile, and the landing was in the targeted zone. Two previous Soyuz spacecraft had suffered ballistic reentries, generating higher g-loads for the crews and causing the capsules to land several hundred kilometers off-target. That problem was linked to a problem with an explosive bolt that prevented the reentry capsule from cleanly separating from its propulsion module. The problem has been fixed on later Soyuz flights, and Volkov and Kononeko performed a spacewalk in July to remove the problematic bolt from their spacecraft.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Monday, February 3
ISRO's NVS-02 satellite faces orbit-raising hurdle after launch
The New Indian — 6:02 am ET (1102 GMT) Overlooked No More: Annie Easley, Who Helped Take Spaceflight to New Heights
New York Times — 6:01 am ET (1101 GMT) ‘City-killer’ asteroid is hurtling by Earth — and scientists are warning of its [unlikely] potential impact
New York Post — 6:00 am ET (1100 GMT) NASA Astronaut Recruitment Faces Trump’s Moves Against D.E.I.
New York Times — 5:58 am ET (1058 GMT) Can ocean-floor mining oversights help us regulate space debris and mining on the Moon?
Eurekalert — 5:55 am ET (1055 GMT) |
