Yi So-yeon had the misfortune of experiencing a "ballistic" re-entry - where the crew experiences much higher g-loads than a normal aerodynamic re-entry. This is the 3rd time this has happened in the Soyuz TMA flight history. I wonder if you get a partial refund if that happens to a spaceflight participant (paying passenger0? 10 Gs... OUCH!
Soyuz TMA ballistic re-entries:
2003 - Soyuz TMA-1 / Expedition 6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TMA-1
2007 - TMA-10
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TMA-10
2007 - TMA-11
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TMA-11
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Yi describes frightening return to Earth
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jJitDZhZSzTx3L37XQOplAlh8fGQD9068T9G0
By DAVID NOWAK – 2 hours ago
STAR CITY, Russia (AP) — South Korea's first astronaut said Monday she was "really scared" when the Russian space capsule she was in made an unexpectedly steep descent to Earth over the weekend.
"During descent I saw some kind of fire outside as we were going through the atmosphere," said Yi So-yeon, a 29-year-old bioengineer. "At first I was really scared because it looked really, really hot and I thought we could burn."
But then she said she noticed it was not even warm inside the Soyuz capsule. "I looked at the others and I pretended to be OK," Yi said.
The steeper-than-usual descent from the international space station subjected Yi, American astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko to severe gravitational forces during the re-entry Saturday.
The technical glitch also sent the TMA-11 craft off-course and it landed about 260 miles from its target on Kazakhstan's barren steppe.
All three members of the crew walked slowly and were unsteady on their feet Monday when arriving for the news conference at Russia's Star City cosmonaut training center outside Moscow.
Malenchenko said it was not yet clear what caused the unusual descent.
"There was no action of the crew that led to this," he said. "Time will tell what went wrong."
It was the second time in a row — and the third since 2003 — that the Soyuz landing had gone awry.
Officials said the craft followed a so-called "ballistic re-entry" — a very steep trajectory that subjects the crew to extreme physical force. Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said the crew had experienced gravitational forces up to 10 times those on Earth during the 3 1/2-hour descent.
Yi traveled to the international space station on April 10, along with cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, who have replaced Whitson and Malenchenko. South Korea paid Russia $20 million for Yi's flight.
Whitson and Malenchenko spent roughly six months performing experiments and maintaining the orbiting station and were replaced by Volkov and Kononenko. They joined American astronaut Garrett Reisman, who arrived last month on the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour.
According to NASA, Whitson, 48, set a new American record for cumulative time in space — 377 days.
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at
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/news/article_1401060.php/Rough_landing_shakes_up_ISS_crew_and_surprises_locals
It says that:
" ...The crew shocked local farmers as they climbed out of the cramped aircraft after 192 days in space for Whitson and Malenchenko and nine days for Yi.
'They didn't believe we were from outer space, even after we showed them our space suit,' Malenchenko laughed.
The equipage's dramatic appearance apparently left locals puzzling over whether the capsule was a boat or a plane.
Though they helped the strange crew make their location known, local residents refused to believe they had come from outer space until authorities arrived 40 minutes later, Malashenko recounted. "
Soyuz TMA ballistic re-entries:
2003 - Soyuz TMA-1 / Expedition 6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TMA-1
2007 - TMA-10
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TMA-10
2007 - TMA-11
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TMA-11
----------
Yi describes frightening return to Earth
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jJitDZhZSzTx3L37XQOplAlh8fGQD9068T9G0
By DAVID NOWAK – 2 hours ago
STAR CITY, Russia (AP) — South Korea's first astronaut said Monday she was "really scared" when the Russian space capsule she was in made an unexpectedly steep descent to Earth over the weekend.
"During descent I saw some kind of fire outside as we were going through the atmosphere," said Yi So-yeon, a 29-year-old bioengineer. "At first I was really scared because it looked really, really hot and I thought we could burn."
But then she said she noticed it was not even warm inside the Soyuz capsule. "I looked at the others and I pretended to be OK," Yi said.
The steeper-than-usual descent from the international space station subjected Yi, American astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko to severe gravitational forces during the re-entry Saturday.
The technical glitch also sent the TMA-11 craft off-course and it landed about 260 miles from its target on Kazakhstan's barren steppe.
All three members of the crew walked slowly and were unsteady on their feet Monday when arriving for the news conference at Russia's Star City cosmonaut training center outside Moscow.
Malenchenko said it was not yet clear what caused the unusual descent.
"There was no action of the crew that led to this," he said. "Time will tell what went wrong."
It was the second time in a row — and the third since 2003 — that the Soyuz landing had gone awry.
Officials said the craft followed a so-called "ballistic re-entry" — a very steep trajectory that subjects the crew to extreme physical force. Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said the crew had experienced gravitational forces up to 10 times those on Earth during the 3 1/2-hour descent.
Yi traveled to the international space station on April 10, along with cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, who have replaced Whitson and Malenchenko. South Korea paid Russia $20 million for Yi's flight.
Whitson and Malenchenko spent roughly six months performing experiments and maintaining the orbiting station and were replaced by Volkov and Kononenko. They joined American astronaut Garrett Reisman, who arrived last month on the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour.
According to NASA, Whitson, 48, set a new American record for cumulative time in space — 377 days.
-------
at
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/news/article_1401060.php/Rough_landing_shakes_up_ISS_crew_and_surprises_locals
It says that:
" ...The crew shocked local farmers as they climbed out of the cramped aircraft after 192 days in space for Whitson and Malenchenko and nine days for Yi.
'They didn't believe we were from outer space, even after we showed them our space suit,' Malenchenko laughed.
The equipage's dramatic appearance apparently left locals puzzling over whether the capsule was a boat or a plane.
Though they helped the strange crew make their location known, local residents refused to believe they had come from outer space until authorities arrived 40 minutes later, Malashenko recounted. "
