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

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" 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? 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

On May 4, 10:09 am, "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? 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/artic.../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

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?

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 11
http://www.astronautix.com/flights/soyuz11.htm

On May 5, 2:32 pm, "Alfred S. Dert" 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] ....."

-michael turner
http://www.transcendentalbloviation.blogspot.com

Michael Turner schrieb:
On May 5, 2:32 pm, "Alfred S. Dert" 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.

"Alfred S. Dert" wrote in message
...
Michael Turner schrieb:
On May 5, 2:32 pm, "Alfred S. Dert" 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

Mike, this is great -- the best account so far!!
Thank you!!

"Michael Turner" wrote
" Here's Mark Shuttleworth's account --

"Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)" writes:

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