The "terrifying descent ballistic" in the Soyuz spacecraft that saved today two astronauts

emergency Landing of the Soyuz for an engine failure after take off

"the Problem of pitchers, two minutes 45 seconds," he announced, keeping calm the astronaut Alexei Ovichinin, commander on board the rocket Soyuz. The capsule, which carried two crew members, was separated from the rocket failed after 123 seconds in the air. What followed next was an emergency landing branded 'terrifying' by the Russian sources, but that ultimately saved their lives.

the malfunction in The throttle of the spacecraft Soyuz MS-10 shortly after its liftoff to the International Space Station meant that the ship had to make a descent at high speed that subjected the astronauts to an acceleration of 6G on the sky of Kazakhstan. The pictures from inside the spacecraft showed that the crew was experiencing shaking at the time of the occurrence of the mechanical failure. The capsule in which they were the crew of two was eyectada automatically by the safety system.

The images broadcast live showed that something strange was happening. NASA tweeted: "The crew is returning to Earth in the mode of descent ballistic". This means that he was falling without propulsion of any kind, and that its course is determined only by the momentum of the ship, which was then slowed by a landing with a parachute. The angle of descent is much more acute than recommended in the manual, and there is a high risk of overheating of the ship.

"there Was a problem with the engine a few seconds after the separation of the first phase" of the ship, and told the commentators of the NASA. "At the time of the liftoff of the Soyuz MS-10, it happened something unusual. The emergency systems have been activated," explained for his part, Roskosmos said in a statement. All the Russian airspace was closed after the incident. The Russian vice prime minister, Yuri Borisov, announced that the manned space flights would be suspended until an investigation is completed, which launched yesterday.

Like in the movies, the initial frustration gave way to euphoria when it was confirmed that the crew had not died scorched or dashed to pieces against the ground. The parachute not failed: it opened at an altitude of 7,500 or 8,000 feet. Four helicopters Mi-8 took off to find the two astronauts, according to media Russian military. In Moscow president Vladimir Putin were available at that time to receive a group of new ambassadors, among them the Spanish, Fernando Valderrama, who presented his credentials. Dimitri Peskov, the spokesman of the Kremlin, told journalists: "Thanks be to God, the cosmonauts are still alive. And that's the main thing".

The Russian Aleksei Ovchinin and the american Nick Hague, after being taken out of the capsule (which landed in the middle of the steppe in kazakhstan) were transferred to a hospital for further medical examinations. The Soyuz-FG had taken off at 10.40 (gmt) from the Baikonur cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, and was scheduled to reach the ISS six hours after launch. For Hague, who joined the astronaut corps of the u.s. space agency in 2013, it was the first space mission, while for Ovchinin was the second flight after that was in 2016, where he remained for 172 days.

The Soyuz carrying the two men for a mission of six months on the orbital outpost. The head of NASA Jim Bridenstine said that it will conduct a "thorough investigation into the cause of the incident".

What happens now with the International Space Station? With only three people in the station, the reserves of food, water, and air are sufficient. But its crew will have to remain focused on managing the space station instead of being able to devote themselves to scientific experiments. Several space walks scheduled, and repairs have been postponed.

The aerospace industry russia has suffered several setbacks recent within the program, Soyuz. September 11, 2013, the Soyuz TMA-08M suffered a failure in its sensor height, which led to the cosmonauts, to "flying blind" during its descent. With the help of the rescue teams, who communicate by radio with the crew, the cosmonauts landed with something of softness, and no one was injured. On the 27th of may 2009, the Soyuz TMA-15 suffered a problem with the control of the temperature within the vessel after the launch. But the problem was solved by adjusting the thermal control system internal. Outside of the program, the Soyuz, but always on unmanned flights, there have been accidents more serious. In December 2016, the Progress, which was carrying 2.6 tonnes of food, fuel and supplies to the ISS failed to achieve orbit and burned up in the atmosphere.

The Soyuz rockets, in their different versions, have been the protagonists of the space programs of soviet and Russian since the decade of the sixties. The Soyuz spacecraft, Russian-made, is currently the only vehicle transporting crews to the ISS after NASA 'retired' its fleet of space shuttles. The Soyuz have always carried the astronauts into space without fatalities. From 2014 the relations between Moscow and Washington have been degraded to the lowest point since the end of the Cold War because of the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, and accusations of interference with Russian in the Us elections of 2016. In spite of everything, Moscow and Washington have maintained cooperation in space.