NASA Urges Caution Amid Soyuz Reports

In a nice politically correct move, NASA cautioned against speculation ahead of the facts after a the Russians reported the three crew members aboard Soyuz TMA-11 were in grave danger when it re-entered the atmosphere on April 19.

Reportedly, the Soyuz vehicle entered the atmosphere facing the wrong direction and suffered severe heat damage to its hatch. In a post-landing press conference, one astronaut said she was frightened by the heating glow she could see out the window. No big deal, just facing the wrong direction as you re-enter the unforgiving atmosphere. Some unnamed Russian sources said that the crew was lucky they survived. Further, the crew is suspected of experiencing over 8Gs of force due to the Soyuz capsule's ballistic trajectory, when the normal max force is 5Gs.

A similar problem occurred on TMA-10 flight, but when that capsule re-entered, the TMA-11 was already docked at the International Space Station, so nothing could be done other than to determine what caused the TMA-10 malfunction and have the crew check it out on the TMA-11 capsule. It was suspected that the TMA-10 capsule had a control cable problem.

But according to NASA, we should not believe those Russians. I suppose they would like us to not believe Russia took out that Georgian UAV too.

In the pictures: top picture is of the Soyuz TMA-11 capsule on its side after re-entry; second one is a photo of the TMA-11 capsule parachuting in after its rough re-entry; bottom one is the spent TMA-10 capsule.


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