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Official: Soyuz Capsule Lands Off Target
Saturday, April 19, 2008
MOSCOW -- A Soyuz capsule carrying South Korea's first astronaut landed in
northern Kazakhstan Saturday, 260 miles off its mark, Russian space
officials said.
Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said the condition of the crew _
South Korean bioengineer Yi So-yeon, American astronaut Peggy Whitson and
Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko _ was satisfactory, though the
three had been subjected to severe G-forces during the re-entry.
The Russian TMA-11 craft touched down at 4:51 a.m. EDT about 260 miles off
target, Lyndin said, a highly unusual distance given how precisely engineers
plan for such landings. It was also around 20 minutes later than scheduled.
Officials said the craft followed a so-called "ballistic re-entry" _ a very
steep trajectory that subjects the crew to extreme physical force. Lyndin
said the crew had experienced gravitational forces up to 10 times those on
Earth during the descent.
The crew were being examined on site by medical officials, and were later to
return to Moscow for further evaluation.
It is the second landing in a row of a Soyuz capsule that has gone awry.
Last October, a technical glitch sent a Soyuz spacecraft carrying Malaysia's
first space traveler and two Russian cosmonauts on a steeper-than-normal
path during their return to Earth.
A similar problem happened in May 2003 when the crew also experienced a
steep, off-course landing. It then took salvage crews several hours to
locate the spacecraft because of communications problems.
Yi traveled to the station on April 10, along with cosmonauts Sergei Volkov
and Oleg Kononenko, who have replaced Whitson and Malenchenko. South Korea
paid Russia $20 million for Yi's flight.
Whitson and Malenchenko spent roughly six months performing experiments and
maintaining the orbiting station.
American astronaut Garrett Reisman, who arrived last month on the U.S. space
shuttle Endeavour, is also on board the station.
Official: Soyuz Capsule Lands Off Target
Saturday, April 19, 2008
MOSCOW -- A Soyuz capsule carrying South Korea's first astronaut landed in
northern Kazakhstan Saturday, 260 miles off its mark, Russian space
officials said.
Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said the condition of the crew _
South Korean bioengineer Yi So-yeon, American astronaut Peggy Whitson and
Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko _ was satisfactory, though the
three had been subjected to severe G-forces during the re-entry.
The Russian TMA-11 craft touched down at 4:51 a.m. EDT about 260 miles off
target, Lyndin said, a highly unusual distance given how precisely engineers
plan for such landings. It was also around 20 minutes later than scheduled.
Officials said the craft followed a so-called "ballistic re-entry" _ a very
steep trajectory that subjects the crew to extreme physical force. Lyndin
said the crew had experienced gravitational forces up to 10 times those on
Earth during the descent.
The crew were being examined on site by medical officials, and were later to
return to Moscow for further evaluation.
It is the second landing in a row of a Soyuz capsule that has gone awry.
Last October, a technical glitch sent a Soyuz spacecraft carrying Malaysia's
first space traveler and two Russian cosmonauts on a steeper-than-normal
path during their return to Earth.
A similar problem happened in May 2003 when the crew also experienced a
steep, off-course landing. It then took salvage crews several hours to
locate the spacecraft because of communications problems.
Yi traveled to the station on April 10, along with cosmonauts Sergei Volkov
and Oleg Kononenko, who have replaced Whitson and Malenchenko. South Korea
paid Russia $20 million for Yi's flight.
Whitson and Malenchenko spent roughly six months performing experiments and
maintaining the orbiting station.
American astronaut Garrett Reisman, who arrived last month on the U.S. space
shuttle Endeavour, is also on board the station.
