soyuz-fg
Latest
Soyuz to embark on first crewed mission to ISS since its failure
Three astronauts are blasting off to the International Space Station this morning aboard the Soyuz MS-11 -- the first time people will travel on the rocket since it fell apart on October 11 with NASA's Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin aboard. Fortunately, the two weren't hurt when they were forced to exit the malfunctioning rocket just two-and-a-half minutes after takeoff. Until then, the craft had a 100 percent success rate, so all eyes will be on this launch.
Soyuz rocket failure blamed on a bent sensor pin
Russia has released the findings from its investigation into the Soyuz rocket failure on October 11th, and the cause may be relatively ignominious. The investigators determined that a bent separation contact sensor pin, damaged during the assembly of the strap-on boosters, prevented a nozzle lid from opening and separating one of the boosters. That led to it hitting the core stage and triggering the decompression that sent the rocket out of control, according to officials. You can see the incident yourself in the video below at the 1:24 mark.
The Big Picture: Delivering crew to the ISS
The Soyuz-FG rocket booster and Soyuz TMA-13M space ship are shown here on a long exposure image of the launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The cargo? Three astronauts headed to the International Space Station. Russian commander Maksim Suraev, American flight engineer Gregory Wiseman, and European astronaut Alexander Gerst will join Steve Swanson and Russians Oleg Artemyev currently aboard the ISS.
Excalibur Almaz wants to offer the first private trip to the Moon -- provided you've got £100 million
Sir Richard Branson might want to look over his shoulder, since Virgin Galactic now has an even more ambitious rival. Britain-based Excalibur Almaz is planning no less than a trip to the Moon using reworked, Soviet-era Salyut space stations and Soyuz capsules as the vehicles for the multi-stage, 500,000-mile total voyage. Accordingly, no one will be living in the lap of luxury on the way there: there's just two habitation modules that will take three people each, and the six-month trip isn't going to leave much room for perks other than an isolated room in the event of a solar radiation blast. Not that there's as much of a rush given the efforts involved in making this look-but-don't-touch Moon orbit a reality. Anyone who travels needs to be in tip-top shape -- and the £100 million ($156 million) ticket will make Virgin's Spaceship Two rides seem downright frugal. Be sure to pack your gym shorts and a briefcase full of cash.
