Splashdown

[ARW]

[Andrew]

They're a bit late. Should've been back at 19:15 BST !

Now expected 19:48

[spuorgelgoog]

It's not bad in percentage terms considering where it's come from.

Southern Rail would be ecstatic at a 33 min delay.

Owain

[ARW]

Pretty sure it was due to splashdown at 19.45 when I read the news yesterday.

[Andrew]

Well that chewed up about a Gigabyte of download.

Interesting that the Russian vehicles land on terra-harder with the assistance of retro rockets but they just whip the occupants out asap.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

I heard it on the news. Seems just a little strange that with all that technology and targeting accuracy, they could not have landed on land like the Russians have for years. Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

Hmm strange delay that, its not one orbit, o may be to due to earlier changes in the flight profile for testing. That is the point of test missions of course to test things. Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

Except that time when a slow detach of the living module created a parabolic return and they set fire to the grass they landed on and it took a while to get them out. Luckily Peggy Witsun did not pass out due to the hi g loads and managed to get some control while her Russian crew were unconscious. Did you know they keep a shotgun on the Soyuz for protection if they land in a dangerous place and have to bale out so to speak after the landing. 9 times out of ten the capsule rolls on its side as the chutes can trag it over if there is a breeze. All these tin can flinging spacecraft seem still a little crude, you would have thought by now a controlled landing on wings was the way to go. Brian

[Scott]

I thought the splashdown was on time with a delay in getting the astronauts out due to a build-up of nitrogen tetroxide. I must admit this if the first time I had heard of this substance.

I thought the astronauts would be wearing full breathing equipment in space-suits and therefore exposure to nitrogen tetroxide for a very short period would cause no difficulty.

Is it environmentally harmful or once the amounts involved are absorbed into the air or sea insignificant compared to the nitrogen dioxide and nitrogen trioxide emitted globally?

[Jethro_uk]

IIRC when the space shuttle first landed on wheels, they couldn't approach it for an hour because there were fumes from the heat shield ? Not the same thing, but an odd memory ... (there was concern they might blow up as some tiles came loose in takeoff ....)