Soyuz MS-10 In-flight Failure - Updates

[DocM]

NEED TO GET COMMERCIAL CREW FLYING, GODDAMIT!!!

 

Soyuz,MS-10 suffered an upper stage failure. The launch abort system activated, and the 2 man crew made a 6G ballistic a entry, landing safely downrange.

 

 

NASA feed. Note when the capsule interior shot breaks up and items jostle.

 

 

 

[+John. Subscriber¹]

Looks like one of the boosters stops prematurely and throws the whole rocket off?

[DocM]

IIRC, in Russian parlance the boosters are the first stage, the center core the second (sustainer) stage, and so on

 

 

[DocM]

 

 

[DocM]

 

 

[FloatingFatMan]

Looks like someone's been hammering parts in upside down again!

 

Thank Zod the crew are OK. But really, it's time the US quit relying on the Russians and their Zodawful quality control and let Musk fly his Dragon 2.

 

[Unobscured Vision]

Was doing homework and decided to take a break to check how the flight went ... holy crap.  

 

Glad the crew is okay. Talk about dicey.

[DocM]

Roscosmos

 

https://www.roscosmos.ru/25594/

 

An emergency situation occurred during the launch of the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft. 

 11.10.2018 12:32 

 During the launch of the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft, an abnormal situation occurred.  The emergency rescue system worked, the ship landed in Kazakhstan along the flight route. 

The crew of the ship is alive and got in touch!  Rescuers have already moved to the search and evacuation of Alexei Ovchinin and Nick Haig. 

Dmitry Rogozin, Director General of Roskosmos State Corporation, flew to the place of the landing crew. 

[Jim K Global Moderator]

So ... this is the first time an eject system has been used in flight ... right?  I believe in the early 80's a manned Soyuz used its escape tower, right before launch, due to the first stage undergoing a RUD.

 

Glad everyone is ok.  

[Unobscured Vision]

My understanding is the Escape System was jetted some 10 or 20 seconds before the incident.

[DocM]

29 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

Looks like someone's been hammering parts in upside down again!

 

Thank Zod the crew are OK. But really, it's time the US quit relying on the Russians and their Zodawful quality control and let Musk fly his Dragon 2.

 

SpaceX says it's ready, just waiting for the NASA paperwork and a parking spot once they get there. 

 

Right now Japan's HTV-7 is blocking said parking space.

 

UV: yup, the LAS was jettisoned before the failure. Solids on the Soyuz fairing pulled it away. Those labeled RDG.

 

[Unobscured Vision]

Bump up that test flight and get the show on the road. The sooner the better. If SpaceX says they're ready, then they're ready.

 

Seriously, I'm a fan of the Soyuz platform, but there's some seriously wacky [stuff] going on with Russia's space program and it ain't good.

I'm replaying the S1 sep sequence ... check out the amount of debris. That wasn't a clean one by a long shot.

[Jim K Global Moderator]

34 minutes ago, Unobscured Vision said:

My understanding is the Escape System was jetted some 10 or 20 seconds before the incident.

Yea, I wasn't talking about the Escape Tower... was talking about about a launch abort system (which this was) being used/fired in mid flight.  Soyuz 18 used its main engine to separate from the third stage after the second/third stage failed to separate.   Soyuz T-10-1 used its escape tower while on the pad.  So, I believe this is the first time that a launch abort system (which doesn't include just the tower) was used in mid-flight on a manned crew.

[Unobscured Vision]

Yep, sorry. Doc cleared that up for me. I was, up until then, thinking they'd totally detached from the S2 & S3 both and had pushed clear using their Instrument Module (Service Module for those of us in the West). I had no idea they had a Vernier-type set of solids that'd do the job after their LAS was gone. Once relieved of it's bulk, those solids would be pretty damned effective too.  Not jarringly so, but they'd do the job (and obviously did).

 

Pretty snazzy way to do it.

 

[EDIT] Oh, and some of the folks at NSF have lost their minds over this one ... there's "we gotta get our own gear online" (which I do support) and then there's an almost "down with Russia" chant (which I do not support).

 

There's already an been an announcement that all Soyuz flights are grounded until further notice, apparently. No surprise there.

[Beittil]

Man, looking at that video it is so weird to see the animation of the flight plow on like nothing is happening while that Russian announcer in the background is calling failure messages over the net.

 

Also, the visual of those side boosters separating is hella sloppy. The visual of the 'korolev' cross' is usually way way way neater. IE the booster exhausts forming the a perfect square after separation, that is not the cast at all here. As of two of them dropped off much earlier than the remaining two.

[Unobscured Vision]

Yeah, there was a ton of debris and the cross was not cross-shaped. Not a clean, clear sep at all. Looked almost like one of the boosters struck the central core or got hung up as it separated.

[+John. Subscriber¹]

5 minutes ago, Unobscured Vision said:

Yeah, there was a ton of debris and the cross was not cross-shaped. Not a clean, clear sep at all. Looked almost like one of the boosters struck the central core or got hung up as it separated.

"According to preliminary data, the Soyuz accident occurred because one of the four first stage units hit the second stage and pressure dropped, the source reported."

 

They're ok though, that's the main thing!
 

 

[Unobscured Vision]

Whoa ... 

 

Robust would be a good word to use for the platform, then. The tank/plumbing/whatever didn't immediately detonate after damage of that caliber ... woof.

 

What can ya say. Russian girls are tough.  

[DocM]

NASA Admin Jim Bridenstine was at Baikonur for the launch,

October 11, 2018 
RELEASE 18-089

NASA Statement on Soyuz MS-10 Launch Abort

 

The following is a statement about Thursday’s Soyuz MS-10 launch aboard to the International Space Station:

 

"The Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station at 4:40 a.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 11 (2:40 p.m. in Baikonur) carrying American astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin. Shortly after launch, there was an anomaly with the booster and the launch ascent was aborted, resulting in a ballistic landing of the spacecraft."

 

“Search and rescue teams were deployed to the landing site. Hague and Ovchinin are out of the capsule and are reported to be in good condition. They will be transported to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia outside of Moscow."

 

"NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and the NASA team are monitoring the situation carefully. NASA is working closely with Roscosmos to ensure the safe return of the crew. Safety of the crew is the utmost priority for NASA. A thorough investigation into the cause of the incident will be conducted."

 

For additional information about the International Space Station and its crews, visit:

 

https://www.nasa.gov/station

[Jim K Global Moderator]

Cool picture(s).

 

 

 

[Skiver Veteran]

It's amazing to see that a near certain death scenario in the past is now completely survivable, glad everyone onboard appears fine.

 

Am I right in thinking that one of the upcoming test flights of Dragon 2 will be to test this exact scenario of a mid-flight crew abort? I hope they release the footage of that, I'm sure it will look pretty amazing.

[IsItPluggedIn]

Since the Soyuz is now not going to the ISS and doesnt seem another will be going any time soon. Couldnt Dragon use the port that the Soyuz was going to use? Or are they different?

[Unobscured Vision]

Different, and an adapter system wouldn't be ready anytime soon either.

[Jim K Global Moderator]

6 hours ago, Skiver said:

It's amazing to see that a near certain death scenario in the past is now completely survivable, glad everyone onboard appears fine.

 

Am I right in thinking that one of the upcoming test flights of Dragon 2 will be to test this exact scenario of a mid-flight crew abort? I hope they release the footage of that, I'm sure it will look pretty amazing.

Yea, I believe the in-flight abort will be around the 2nd quarter of next year.  This upcoming January is a scheduled uncrewed test flight of the Crew Dragon.  After that flight there will be the in-flight abort test, reusing the Dragon from that January test flight.  If everything goes well ... SpaceX should start sending people up mid-year.  Unless something has changed...

 

I'm sure they will have some nice photos/videos.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

1 hour ago, IsItPluggedIn said:

Since the Soyuz is now not going to the ISS and doesnt seem another will be going any time soon. Couldnt Dragon use the port that the Soyuz was going to use? Or are they different?

The Soyuz is one of the safest launchers on the planet and has had no loss of life in 47 years.

The Soyuz will only be down for a few months. MS-11 is almost complete and can be sent remote to replace the one on station due out in a few months. The Soyuz could stay a lot longer but the GNC propellant determines the 6 month life cycle. The next MS is also in production and crews get shifted down one slot.

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Commercial Crew will not take shortcuts. SpaceX DM-1will probably fly in January 2019. The booster and upper stage are at McGregor being tested and will be at the cape shortly for integration.

 

Quote

Reed: the Falcon 9 first and second stages for the Demo-1 (uncrewed) test flight are in final testing at McGregor, shipping soon to Cape.

https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1050513096807133184

 

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1 hour ago, Jim K said:

Yea, I believe the in-flight abort will be around the 2nd quarter of next year.  This upcoming January is a scheduled uncrewed test flight of the Crew Dragon.  After that flight there will be the in-flight abort test, reusing the Dragon from that January test flight.  If everything goes well ... SpaceX should start sending people up mid-year.  Unless something has changed...

 

I'm sure they will have some nice photos/videos.

Correct, but we must remember that the "in flight abort" is optional for SpaceX...meaning that NASA could (under dire circumstances...not likely) ask them to reschedule and go straight to DM-2 and taking that further, DM-2 can be deemed operational if required.

 

Overall, lots of leeway and I see CC following the planning, with a bit more hustle on the paperwork...

 

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Appears the problem was the lower pyro on a strap on, which allowed the "booster first stage" to contact the main core "stage 2. All sequences after that followed the plan. The Soyuz has a "kick-butt" safety system...as seen in action.

 

11 hours ago, Unobscured Vision said:

Whoa ... 

 

Robust would be a good word to use for the platform, then. The tank/plumbing/whatever didn't immediately detonate after damage of that caliber ... woof.

 

What can ya say. Russian girls are tough.  

The Soyuz is one tough cookie....remember that it is modeled on the R-7 ICBM...an all weather puppy, which is why weather rarely concerns a Soyuz launch.

 

Summary...I expect that MS-11 will be sent remote for a change out, even before the investigation is complete...The Soyuz may be grounded for 3 months, but all will be okay. CC will carry on and the DM's may be operational and nothing will miss much of a beat.

 

My 2 cents....