Roscosmos to Wrap Up Soyuz Abort Investigation Next Week
Expedition 57 Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, left, and Flight Engineer Nick Hague of NASA, right. embrace their families after landing at the Krayniy Airport, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
TASS reports that Roscosmos will have a final report on the abort of a Soyuz crew launch to the International Space Station on Oct. 30. Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Nick Hague parachuted to safety aboard their Soyuz MS-10 capsule.
“Having listened to reports of the experts investigating causes of the emergency, members of the emergency commission have approved, after a detailed examination, a draft report on causes of the incident and begun drawing up recommendations to prevent similar situations in the future,” the statement says.
“The final report and list of recommendations for the space industry enterprises will be approved on October 30, 2018 and will be submitted to chairperson of the State Commission for Flight Tests of Manned Space Complexes,” it says.
Following a smooth liftoff, the Soyuz’s booster malfunctioned between the first and second stages of separating, whereupon the crew was forced to abort the flight and switch to ballistic descent. The manned Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft ended up landing in the Kazakh steppe. The Soyuz MS-10 crew were not hurt.
Video of the flight indicates that one of four strap-on boosters that form the first stage failed to separate properly from the core booster. Media reports the booster might have been improperly installed.
3 responses to “Roscosmos to Wrap Up Soyuz Abort Investigation Next Week”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
The Russian news service RIA Novosti said Oct. 20 that one of the boosters was not properly attached to the rocket’s core stage during assembly.
According to that report, citing a “space agency source,” a mounting
lug was bent when the side booster was “forcefully connected” to the
core stage, and that workers then added lubricant to ensure that it
would separate. However, during separation, that side booster hit the
core stage and damaged it, leading to the launch abort.
One is reminded of the old joke about a recipient taking a badly mangled and crushed package to the complaint window at the U.S. Post Office. “Oh,” says the postal clerk upon examining the sad remains, “this was incorrectly stamped.” “Do you mean,” responded the complainant, “that you used the wrong foot!”
Does Roscosmos recruit their techs from Jiffy Lube? Are they day laborers? Maybe they should contract out the work to some companies with bonded employees.