What it’s like to fall 31 miles to Earth after your rocket fails.
The vehicle carrying Hague and Ovchinin had just taken off from Kazakhstan at 4:40AM ET (2:40PM local time). Just two and a half minutes into flight, the vehicle began to break apart. …
As soon as the failure occurred, the Soyuz capsule carrying Hague and Ovchinin switched into abort mode and separated away from the failing rocket. The astronauts experienced a brief moment of weightlessness while the capsule soared through the air. Then gravity soon took hold, and the vehicle started to fall back the 31 miles down to Earth. The crew members had begun what is known as a ballistic descent. “It’s like tossing a ball high into the air,” said Hague. “At some point gravity takes over and starts bringing it back down.”
It took 34 minutes for the capsule to land. Poor Hague. I mean, glad he and
Ovchinin are okay, so no need for too much sympathy, but who knows when, or even if, Hague will actually make it to space. I bet competition for slots is pretty fierce.
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