Soyuz landing and recovery options

courtesy Keith Cowing's site:
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=16330

ISS On-Orbit Status (April 24): "Because of the currently wet and muddy
ground conditions in the general landing zone, landing forces are
considering three scenarios (which do not involve the Soyuz landing process
itself):

(a) if conditions at the landing site are too muddy for the usual
post-landing ops, the SAR (Search-and-Rescue) helicopters will take the crew
to Arkalyk (~85 km) for the standard post-landing process;

(b) if conditions are muddy but workable, a reduced SAR force will land and
de-suit the crew;

(c) if the ground is dry, a normal SAR landing force will be deployed and
conduct normal landing ops."

Weather forecast is for rainy, overcast, cold (just above freezing). Landing
is two hours before sunrise.

TASS quotes Valeriy Lyndin at TsUP-M: "The landing will take place in
difficult conditions because of the night time and flood waters in the
landing area," he added. "Soil is very wet in the area chosen for the
landing. the sky is overcast but no rain is expected, and air temperature is
plus eight degrees [Centigrade]."

NASA TV reports that the landing zone is too wet for the
additional helos with medical teams, the crew will be loaded onto
the one helo now on the ground, and brought to Arkalyk
for medical processing.

"Jim Oberg" wrote in message
...
NASA TV reports that the landing zone is too wet for the
additional helos with medical teams, the crew will be loaded onto
the one helo now on the ground, and brought to Arkalyk
for medical processing.

bait

Gee, if only instead of a capsule they had a winged re-entry vehicle, they
could have landed on a nice runway and the vehicles could have driven up to
the craft.

/bait

"Jim Oberg" wrote:

NASA TV reports that the landing zone is too wet for the
additional helos with medical teams, the crew will be loaded onto
the one helo now on the ground, and brought to Arkalyk
for medical processing.

Damm good thing this wasn't an emergency recovery where one of the
crew might have required medical attention at landing.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL

Derek Lyons wrote:

Damm good thing this wasn't an emergency recovery where one of the
crew might have required medical attention at landing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4479049.stm

BBC states that it landed less than 4 hours after undocking from the
station. It landed 90km from Arkalyk. So lets say that it would have
taken 6 hours from station to hospital, that is pretty damn good.

And had it been a real emergency, they may have landed sooner and in a
different location to possibly get crew to hospital even sooner. I
assume the russians have software to highlight possible landing sites
for each orbit where landing is possible AND medical help can be
obtained reasonably soon.

And while in this case, they many not have been able to spend time
unrolling the red carpet and setting up the lounge chairs next to the
soyuz, don't forget that medical crews on the helicopter would have been
able to start administering paramedic style care during the helicopter
ride to the hospital.

On or about Mon, 25 Apr 2005 03:46:29 GMT, Derek Lyons made the sensational claim that:
Damm good thing this wasn't an emergency recovery where one of the
crew might have required medical attention at landing.

Oh now come on, this had absolutely nothing to do with the Soyuz itself, and
you know it! The Soyuz is still all singing, all dancing, PERFECT! :-D
--
This is a siggy | To E-mail, do note | Just because something
It's properly formatted | who you mean to reply-to | is possible, doesn't
No person, none, care | and it will reach me | mean it can happen

John Doe wrote in message news:1114406099.ce45bf41060592ab66077e7adfb6c337@ teranews...
Derek Lyons wrote:

BBC states that it landed less than 4 hours after undocking from the
station. It landed 90km from Arkalyk. So lets say that it would have
taken 6 hours from station to hospital, that is pretty damn good.

http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/content/news.shtml
quotes ITAR-TASS quoting gen-maj Vladimir Popov, head of federal air
and space search and rescue: (quick and dirty translation)
"A unique method of evacuation was used for TMA-5 landing ... rescue
helicopters hovered above the landing site. Rescue team descended on
the ground using special ladders, opened the hatch and pulled the crew
out. After receiving permission from the doctor who examined the crew
on site, the crew were lifted aboard the helicopter on stretchers one
by one ... The whole operation from the opening of capsule's parachute
until arrival at the hospital 85km away from the landing site took
less then 50 minutes."

"LooseChanj" wrote in message
...
On or about Mon, 25 Apr 2005 03:46:29 GMT, Derek Lyons
made the sensational claim that:
Damm good thing this wasn't an emergency recovery where one of the
crew might have required medical attention at landing.

Oh now come on, this had absolutely nothing to do with the Soyuz itself,
and
you know it! The Soyuz is still all singing, all dancing, PERFECT! :-D

The shuttle has had one mission terminated early due to electrical problems.
Again, the superiority of one over the other, in terms of reliability,
cannot be proven statistically.

Jeff
--
Remove icky phrase from email address to get a valid address.

Jeff Findley wrote:
"LooseChanj" used Derek's phrase:
The Soyuz is still all singing, all dancing, PERFECT! :-D

The shuttle has had one mission terminated early due to electrical
problems.
Again, the superiority of one over the other, in terms of
reliability,
cannot be proven statistically.

I don't think Derek argues *this* point. What he argues is that the
shuttle is held up for contempt at the same level of reliability that
the Soyuz is at, while the Soyuz is concurrently held up for praise.

Derek thinks this is a pervasive view (perhaps he suspects this of 90%
of s.s.* posters), and I'm not convinced that it is pervasive. He
shows signs of accusing anybody who likes capsules (as either a spot
solution or a long term plan) of holding the "all singing" view, and
that is definitely not true.

/dps