Jochem Huhmann wrote:
Reed Snellenberger writes:


Has *any* Soyuz-class capsule been recovered from water? I can't remember
ever hearing about it being tested that way, although I'm sure it has, but
it looks a bit top-heavy to be a comfortable boat (as opposed to Gemini &
Apollo, which seemed fairly stable).


AFAIK a water landing is a part of standard crew training. A soyuz will
sink within 40 seconds when the hatch starts to draw water (and this
seems to happen fairly easy), so this is not exactly a safe procedure.

Here is an article and a few photos of Foale on Black Sea training:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/...e-blacksea.htm


Jochem

Thanks for the link, Jochem... that's exactly what I was interested in
-- and no, it doesn't sound like the Soyuz is as good a boat as either
Gemini or Apollo. I'm specifically thinking back to this picture of the
astronauts (Stafford & Cernan) casually leaning against the open hatch
openings during their recovery -- of course, they probably had the
horsecollar on by then...

http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/IMAGES/SMALL...000-001416.jpg

--
Reed Snellenberger
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rsnellenberger-at-houston.rr.com