logo

Astronauts escape malfunction on way to International Space Station

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Share to Google Classroom

A US astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut were forced to make an emergency landing after their Russian Soyuz rocket malfunctioned en route to the International Space Station.

Shortly after taking off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Nick Hague and Alexey Ovchinin reported a problem with the rocket’s booster.

The men were forced into a “ballistic descent”, with their capsule landing a few hundred miles north of Baikonur.

They were picked up by rescuers and luckily escaped any major injuries. It would have been an uncomfortable ride back to Earth. They would have experienced very sharp accelerations and decelerations on the return.

Russia said it was suspending any further manned flights, and an investigation into what went wrong had begun.

Soyuz is one of the oldest rocket designs but also one of the safest.

8 Responses

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

1
The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards are back, and this year...
1
Twenty-six-year-old Kalpana Balan from India, has clinched a coveted spot...
1
At the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions expo...
1
In a delightful twist of literary history, a library book,...

World & National News

1
In a departure from recent trends, Walt Disney Studios is...
1
Hands down, we all love school holidays, that’s a given....
1
Imagine living in a super pretty town and finding out...
1
The Wellington Phoenix are having a fantastic time in the...