Aeronautics Industry Aeronautics Industry    FAQ   Search   Memberlist   Usergroups   Register   Profile   Log in to check your private messages   Log in  Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences          Aeronautics Industry Forum Index -> Aeronautics Industry View previous topic :: View next topic   Author Message Jim Oberg Guest Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 9:09 pm    Post subject: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences Does anybody have any good links to personal spacefarer accounts of what it FEELS like to come back to Earth in a Soyuz? I've found a number of good on-orbit diaries and 'letters home' but they all seem to end with a brief, 'then we landed', kind of terminal sentence. I'd like to find some personal accounts of the human experience -- sights, sounds, pressures, even smells of the process. Help, please -- for a feature article. JimO Back to top   Ads Advertising Sponsor OM Guest Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 11:09 pm    Post subject: Re: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences On Fri, 4 May 2007 12:09:22 -0500, "Jim Oberg" <joberg@houston.rr.com> wrote: Quote: I'd like to find some personal accounts of the human experience -- sights, sounds, pressures, even smells of the process "...Although the reentry was rough at times, it was nowhere near as rough as having to endure another one of Vladimir's atrocious borcht farts, which somehow managed to overload the air recyclers and totaly contaminate the air supply. His flatulence was so devastating that when they pulled out the LiHO filters from the reentry module, they found they'd been eaten through!" OM -- ]=====================================[ ] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [ ] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [ ] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [ ]=====================================[ Back to top   Ads Advertising Sponsor Guest Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 2:10 am    Post subject: Re: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences Hi again, Jim: Not to sound too much like a broken record, but you might amble down to the library and take a free look-see at "Too Far From Home." Although focusing mainly on the unplanned ballistic reentry of the Soyuz TMA 1, there were accounts of several other flights and reentries, that were colorfully described, if for all I know not technically perfect in the details. Cheers, frank On May 4, 12:09 pm, "Jim Oberg" <job...@houston.rr.com> wrote: Quote: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences Does anybody have any good links to personal spacefarer accounts of what it FEELS like to come back to Earth in a Soyuz? I've found a number of good on-orbit diaries and 'letters home' but they all seem to end with a brief, 'then we landed', kind of terminal sentence. I'd like to find some personal accounts of the human experience -- sights, sounds, pressures, even smells of the process. Help, please -- for a feature article. JimO Back to top   Ads Advertising Sponsor Michael Turner Guest Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 9:39 am    Post subject: Re: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences On May 4, 10:09 am, "Jim Oberg" <job...@houston.rr.com> wrote: Quote: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences Does anybody have any good links to personal spacefarer accounts of what it FEELS like to come back to Earth in a Soyuz? I've found a number of good on-orbit diaries and 'letters home' but they all seem to end with a brief, 'then we landed', kind of terminal sentence. I'd like to find some personal accounts of the human experience -- sights, sounds, pressures, even smells of the process. Help, please -- for a feature article. JimO "Pressures" -- ah, that rang a bell. Here's Mark Shuttleworth's account -- telling us it's not all about floating carefree in microgravity with splendid views of the Earth, no, quite the contrary (and all the more thrilling). --- "From a shake-your-bones point of view, the re-entry in a Soyuz can't really be beaten. You are coming in at mach 25 when the atmosphere first sucks you in. You see the blackness of space turning a dull red as the heat builds up around your vehicle. The Soyuz is designed to orient itself correctly for re-entry even if it's a dead craft with no attitude control, so you feel the craft swinging around to ensure that the heatshield will take the brunt of it. Then you watch your spacecraft disintegrate and burn up around you, and the G forces build up till you are in the middle of an inferno with the spare hard drives you brought back on your chest weighting a ton, and the Soyuz spinning like a top to try and spread the heat load out evenly on the shield. You watch bolts and other pieces of metal on the outside melt and run liquid across your window before it blisters and blackens. It's an unbelievable display of forces entirely outside of your control, [with] you, an ant, in the middle of the fireworks display. You know that your survival is totally dependent on the people who put this machine together, that there is nothing you personally can do if it comes apart. It's a hell of a ride." http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/04/1859255 I was slightly awestruck when I first read this account. I still am. It's a sparkling little gem, especially when you consider that it's (apparently) just tossed off in an e-mail interview, with few of the lapidary strokes of the professional writer. (Perhaps the picture could be cropped just slightly, to even better effect, but I doubt it.) The use of "you" rather than "I/me" (thanks, Jay McInerney!) was an especially clever touch, assuming it was premeditated. But maybe it wasn't. A surprising *un*-breathless (but breathtaking) account of a literally breathtaking personal event. I keep coming back to it. -michael turner http://www.transcendentalbloviation.blogspot.com Back to top   Ads Advertising Sponsor robert casey Guest Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 11:31 pm    Post subject: Re: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences Jim Oberg wrote: Quote: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences Does anybody have any good links to personal spacefarer accounts of what it FEELS like to come back to Earth in a Soyuz? Was it a Soyuz that some cosmonauts died in when a pressure equalization valve popped open too early during reentry? Back to top   Ads Advertising Sponsor Alfred S. Dert Guest Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 1:32 am    Post subject: Re: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences robert casey schrieb: Quote: Jim Oberg wrote: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences Does anybody have any good links to personal spacefarer accounts of what it FEELS like to come back to Earth in a Soyuz? Was it a Soyuz that some cosmonauts died in when a pressure equalization valve popped open too early during reentry? Soyuz 11 http://www.astronautix.com/flights/soyuz11.htm Back to top   Ads Advertising Sponsor Michael Turner Guest Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 5:05 pm    Post subject: Re: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences On May 5, 2:32 pm, "Alfred S. Dert" <asd...@web.de> wrote: Quote: robert casey schrieb: Jim Oberg wrote: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences Does anybody have any good links to personal spacefarer accounts of what it FEELS like to come back to Earth in a Soyuz? Was it a Soyuz that some cosmonauts died in when a pressure equalization valve popped open too early during reentry? Soyuz 11http://www.astronautix.com/flights/soyuz11.htm I think Jim was in the market for an account more articulate than "[unintelligible shouts] ... [screams] ... [gasps] ... [gurgles] ....." -michael turner http://www.transcendentalbloviation.blogspot.com Back to top   Ads Advertising Sponsor Alfred S. Dert Guest Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 8:07 pm    Post subject: Re: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences Michael Turner schrieb: Quote: On May 5, 2:32 pm, "Alfred S. Dert" <asd...@web.de> wrote: robert casey schrieb: Jim Oberg wrote: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences Does anybody have any good links to personal spacefarer accounts of what it FEELS like to come back to Earth in a Soyuz? Was it a Soyuz that some cosmonauts died in when a pressure equalization valve popped open too early during reentry? Soyuz 11http://www.astronautix.com/flights/soyuz11.htm I think Jim was in the market for an account more articulate than "[unintelligible shouts] ... [screams] ... [gasps] ... [gurgles] ....." Sure. But this was a reply to Robert, not to Jim. And as far as I know there has been no voice recording and no voice radio transmission from Soyuz 11. So: no screams to listen. Good. Back to top   Ads Advertising Sponsor Greg D. Moore (Strider) Guest Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 10:05 pm    Post subject: Re: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences "Alfred S. Dert" <asdert@web.de> wrote in message news:f1kug2$3qq$1@online.de... Quote: Michael Turner schrieb: On May 5, 2:32 pm, "Alfred S. Dert" <asd...@web.de> wrote: robert casey schrieb: Soyuz 11http://www.astronautix.com/flights/soyuz11.htm I think Jim was in the market for an account more articulate than "[unintelligible shouts] ... [screams] ... [gasps] ... [gurgles] ....." Sure. But this was a reply to Robert, not to Jim. And as far as I know there has been no voice recording and no voice radio transmission from Soyuz 11. So: no screams to listen. Good. Well given the method of death, screams are extremely unlikely. In all likelihood they never knew what was happening to them. -- Greg Moore SQL Server DBA Consulting Remote and Onsite available! Email: sql (at) greenms.com http://www.greenms.com/sqlserver.html Back to top   Ads Advertising Sponsor Jim Oberg Guest Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 12:32 am    Post subject: Re: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences Mike, this is great -- the best account so far!! Thank you!! "Michael Turner" <leap@gol.com> wrote > " Here's Mark Shuttleworth's account -- Back to top   Ads Advertising Sponsor Jochem Huhmann Guest Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 12:37 am    Post subject: Re: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences "Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)" <mooregr_deleteth1s@greenms.com> writes: Quote: And as far as I know there has been no voice recording and no voice radio transmission from Soyuz 11. So: no screams to listen. Good. Well given the method of death, screams are extremely unlikely. In all likelihood they never knew what was happening to them. Since they tried to locate and close the valve (but only managed to close it partly) it seems they knew quite well what was happening... Jochem -- "A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery Back to top   Ads Advertising Sponsor norman Guest Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 1:28 am    Post subject: Re: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences On Fri, 04 May 2007 12:09:22 -0500, Jim Oberg wrote: Quote: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences Does anybody have any good links to personal spacefarer accounts of what it FEELS like to come back to Earth in a Soyuz? I've found a number of good on-orbit diaries and 'letters home' but they all seem to end with a brief, 'then we landed', kind of terminal sentence. I'd like to find some personal accounts of the human experience -- sights, sounds, pressures, even smells of the process. Help, please -- for a feature article. JimO I seem to recall having read some good descriptions by Mike Shuttleworth and posted on the internet. Sorry, I do not have any links. Norman Back to top   Ads Advertising Sponsor Jochem Huhmann Guest Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 2:04 am    Post subject: Re: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences "Jim Oberg" <joberg@houston.rr.com> writes: Quote: Mike, this is great -- the best account so far!! Thank you!! There's an account from Anousheh Ansari of what happens *after* reentry on her blog: http://spaceblog.xprize.org/2006/10/05/second-birth/ Quote: "Before descent, Jeff reminded me to make sure I moved slowly upon landing and to keep my head steady... This helps with the vestibular system’s readjustment to gravity. I followed his instruction and made sure that I did not make any sudden movements. The head of the Training Center handed me an apple that looked appetizing but as soon as I started to take a bite someone from the medical team started shaking his head telling me not to eat it... I guess he was worried that it would make me feel sick. I waited a while but the apple looked too good to give up so I started taking small bites." I quite sure to remember reading something from her about the actual reentry back then, but I can't find it now. Jochem -- "A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery Back to top   Ads Advertising Sponsor Scott Hedrick Guest Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 4:14 am    Post subject: Re: Need personal accounts of Soyuz entry experiences "Jochem Huhmann" <joh@gmx.net> wrote in message news:m2irb54njh.fsf@marvin.revier.com... Quote: I quite sure to remember reading something from her about the actual reentry back then, but I can't find it now. From the Soyuz Flight Attendant Manual (translation to russian outsourced to China): "Please to be remembering the fate of John Glenn when there be streaming flaming chucks of cabin outside viewport." Back to top   Ads Advertising Sponsor Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First         Aeronautics Industry Forum Index -> Aeronautics Industry All times are GMT Page 1 of 1   Jump to: Select a forum Aeronautics Industry----------------Aeronautics Industry  You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum 222 Attacks blocked Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group