What does it do to fall 31 miles on Earth after the failure of your rocket

For the first few minutes, the ride into space had been a routine. NASA astronaut Nick Hague and his teammate, Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, were forced to sit inside a Russian Soyuz capsule as the vehicle climbed rapidly into l & # 39; atmosphere. Then there was a shock.

"The first thing I really noticed was to be shaken pretty violently from one side to the other," said Hague during a series of events. TV interviews today.

The vehicle carrying Hague and Ovchinine had just taken off from Kazakhstan at 4:40 am ET (14:40 local time). Two and a half minutes after the start of the flight, the vehicle began to break. We still do not know what caused the failure, but the Russian space company Roscosmos thinks there were unexpected contacts during the separation. On the Soyuz, four thrusters around the center of the rocket are supposed to come off in flight, but it is possible that one of the four crashed in the center of the vehicle.

The jolts lasted a few seconds, then an alarm was triggered inside the capsule. The alarm was quickly followed by the lighting of an emergency light, indicating a failure. "I once knew that I saw this light that we had an emergency with the reminder – that at that time, we would not go to orbit that day. "there," he said. Suddenly, the mission had changed. Now the goal was to return to Earth in one piece.

As soon as the failure occurred, the Soyuz capsule carrying Hague and Ovchinin went into abandonment mode and separated from the failed rocket. The astronauts experienced a brief moment of weightlessness as the capsule flew through the air. Gravity then quickly took root and the vehicle began to retreat 31 miles on Earth. The crew members had started what is called a ballistic descent. "It's like throwing a ball high in the air," said Hague. "At some point, gravity takes over and starts to bring it back."

During a ballistic descent, a capsule enters a much steeper angle than a routine landing, which means that it can accumulate a greater amount of G forces than normal. In a normal Soyuz raid, astronauts can experience up to 5G. During the descent of The Hague and Ovchinin, the pair fired up to 6.7G, which is 6.7 times the normal force of gravity of the Earth. Such an episode can be intense for the human body, especially if the higher G's are felt for a long time. Fortunately, the crew only felt these superior forces for a few seconds, said The Hague, before deploying the capsule parachutes. "Depending on where the emergency occurred, we were very lucky."

Hague, an air force veteran, said his military training and training of astronauts had quickly taken over. Those who board the Soyuz are still preparing for the rare case of rocket failure and the crew has begun the landing procedures. Hague also said that he had already experienced failures in the air force. He knew that the best thing to do was to stay calm. "You realize that the training is there for your safety," he said. "The thing I can do to put ourselves on the ground as surely as possible is to try to stay as calm and focused as possible." When the capsule fell, Hague said that he had looked out the window to take the measurement of the terrain. and determine if the capsule fell in a controlled manner.

It was still the first trip to The Hague in space. Each experience was new to him, including the fall on Earth. He did not know how to expect specific movements inside the Soyuz or jolts when deploying parachutes. "These are all sensations that, you know, we can not simulate. These feelings of being tossed and thrown inside the capsule, "he said. However, Ovchinin had already raided Soyuz and kept Hague informed of what was normal and what was abnormal.

Image: NASA / Bill Ingalls

Just 34 minutes after the failure, the capsule is safely parachuted to Kazakhstan. Hague and Ovchinin are on the ground. The two sneered "from ear to ear," Hague said, and they shook hands. Some jokes have been criticized for the brevity of their flight. They quickly started calling everyone by satellite phone to inform the world that they were safe. Hague says that he called his wife, but the first call was sent to his voicemail. "She now has a voice message to keep as a souvenir for the rest of her life," he said.

The emergency teams quickly arrived at the landing site and brought Hague and Ovchinin back to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the launch site. It was there that they were reunited with their families. "Finally being able to hold my wife in my arms and hug her was just huge," Hague said. "That made me feel like I was okay. I am finally back and safe. "

Back in Houston, the situation is a little uncertain for The Hague. He does not know when he will fly again, although he is eager to resume another mission. He also says that he feels comfortable again in the Soyuz because the emergency evacuation system has finally saved his life. "It only reinforced my appreciation of the robustness of this system," he said. "There is a launch abandonment system that permanently protects me about an hour before launch until I'm in orbit. And at any time there, we can have a failure and that will protect me. "

Still, Hague says it was bittersweet for him to know how close he was to space. "I imagined that my first trip to space was going to be memorable," he said. "I did not expect it to be so memorable."