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Two minutes after his first trip to space last Thursday, American astronaut Nick Hague realized how well the flight was going smoothly. "That was all I was waiting for," he told NASA's director Jim Bridenstine on Tuesday at the Johnson Space Center.
Everything was going as planned. The Kansas native, chosen by NASA as an astronaut in 2013, was finally heading to the International Space Station. Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin was alongside him in the narrow quarters of the capsule of the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft.
They had left the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2:40 pm local time.
Two minutes after the launch, during the first separation stage, the rocket propellents are supposed to separate simultaneously and return to Earth. Their work is finished.
Then things did not go as planned.
Shortly after the launch, there was an anomaly with the booster and the ascent of the launch was halted, resulting in a ballistic landing of the spacecraft, according to a NASA statement.
"We were violently shaken from one side to the other, pushed into our seats as the evacuation system from the launch pad separated us from the rocket," Hague said while describing which had happened. "While all this is going on, you are upset, the vision is blurry. I hear the alarm ringing and see the red light where the the engine had an emergency. I realized in a striking way that we are not yet in orbit: we have been removed from the rocket and we have to land. "
When the capsule canceled the climb automatically, it caused a shock for a moment. "I knew we were far from the rocket," said Hague. They were in ballistic return and descent, a landing angle sharper than normal.
The astronauts first felt the weightlessness, then an excess of G force, or force of gravity. The Russian interpreter said: "6.7 Gs." Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield tweeted: "On a normal Soyuz entry, we shoot roughly at 4G, but ballistic yields give 8 or 9, depending on the angle and speed."
"As it rips us off the rocket, once these thrusters are finished. We are as if you throw a baseball in the air, it would follow this ballistic trajectory, "said The Hague. "This weightlessness was the moment we reached our peak and we were preparing to fall back to Earth."
When the capsule fell to Earth, it had to slow down so that the chutes could open. Aerodynamic drag caused excessive G forces. Minutes passed and Force G began to "ramp up," Hague said.
The worst lasted about 20 seconds, he said. But they were trained to do this in the centrifuge, at higher G forces, for longer periods of time.
But it was not his experience in military planes, where the G is trying to draw your blood. Instead, they "came straight to us," he said. They pushed on his chest. He had learned to keep his chest open so he could breathe a good breath. Then he had to flex his muscles and essentially breathe with his stomach, using his abdomen to open the diaphragm to continue breathing.
The memories of this moment will forever be engraved in the spirit of The Hague, he said. "I remember that little debris floating in front of my face, looking up and seeing our Zero G indicators floating there and realizing," That's what the space will look like, but not today. "
The capsule was still under the nose of the rocket. For 30 seconds, they could not see outside, anxiously awaiting the separation of the cone in order to watch them sneak into the atmosphere of the Earth.
"Those 30 seconds were the longest in the whole process," said Hague. His mind was full, trying to figure out what had happened, where they were, whether he and his fellow cosmonauts were doing well and understand the condition of their vehicle.
Then the practice came into play
Hague and Ovchinin have both gone from launching procedures to landing, preparing for what to do to get back on the ground in the next 15 minutes.
Yet, to listen to them talk about the recording now, they sound calm.
Learning the Russian language was part of the training of astronauts in The Hague. One can hear him speak in Russian while Ovchinin communicated what was happening to the control of the Russian mission.
For Hague, you have to spend a lot of time training through all possible failure scenarios, including a scenario similar to what really happened. But, he chuckled, "There were a lot of things I probably wanted to say."
"You realize that you are in a difficult situation, what you can do to give yourself the best chance of success is to concentrate, stay calm and do what you have been trained to do," he said. added.
After the G dropped, the astronauts followed the standard landing procedure – which they practiced hundreds of times.
But they were not prepared for physical sensations. The Hague had scribbled a few notes during the training what to expect. Then he felt it.
"When the parachute opens, it sways sideways from 5 to 6 G," Hague said. "Before opening the chutes, we try to collect the loose objects so that they do not become projectiles."
Normally, while waiting for a landing, rescue forces circle helicopters to inform astronauts of their altitude. Instead, Hague was looking out the window and was trying to guess while Ovchinin was trying to contact relief forces in order to be rooted out.
Then, at the last minute, just before the landing, the rockets ignited to help stall and minimize the impact with the ground.
"It's the most brutal way to get back from space," said retired astronaut Scott Kelly. In 2016, CNN explained to CNN what a return to Earth was from the International Space Station. "It's like going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, but while you're on fire." Hague said that was exactly what it was.
Then, Ovchinin acted quickly by cutting the parachute so that he did not hang around. The crew landed south of the city of Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan. The entire event took place in about 15 minutes.
"We had the impression of bouncing two or three times, rolling and stopping completely," Hague said. "It was a difficult race. When we skidded to the stop and I looked out the window, I sighed with relief. "
A similar landing has occurred now–Peggy Whitson, retired astronaut, landing outreach in April 2008. She says the Soyuz probe hit the ground so hard that she bounced back, even though she did not know it at the time. the. "Inside the capsule, I did not know we had bounced back, that was just a big shot," Whitson told CNN at the time.
Hague and Ovchinin were all smiling, fecunding each other and making fun of the jokes on the short flight.
"We looked at each other and knew we had survived," Hague said.
The capsule had landed on the hatch that the astronauts are supposed to be able to use to evacuate. They were hanging on their straps. Rescue forces said they were not far and rescuers jumped as quickly as possible to reach them.
A few minutes later, there was a pat on the window and the fingers formed the OK signal. The Hague gave them a big smile. He said the Russian search and rescue teams had "surprised" him with their response.
The Hague moved away from the landing with some bumps and bruises. The two astronauts were flown to Baikonur, where they found their families and officials.
"When I saw him at the airport, his personality was as brilliant as ever," said NASA Director Bridenstine. "I am humble and just happy. The training paid off.
The investigation into the cause of the recall anomaly is ongoing. Tuesday, Hague went to Houston with his wife to enjoy the freshness of autumn. But he is eager to go into space and make his launch in the future, whatever the time.
"For a first flight for me, it was extremely memorable," said Hague.
It could have been worse, but it's still a trying experience for an astronaut who hopes to live in space for six months.
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