FYI, yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 7 flight (first manned Apollo mission).
The Soyuz only has life support for 30 person-days (i.e. 10 days with the normal crew of 3). It’s a transport capsule to get to and from a space station.
Yes. But it is exposed to the conditions of space for months.
Just curious: the capsule currently attached to ISS had a leak. Was it leaking out some of the 30 person-days of life support, or is the hatch “open” while it’s connected to the ISS and it was leaking out some of ISS’s air?
As I recall, the space station instrumentation indicated a drop in pressure.
Per reports tuevSoyu
Weird typo.
I meant that reports are that the Soyuz at the station is also nearing the end of its space rating, 200 days.
The expiration date for the Soyuz comes from the fact that the hydrogen peroxide in the maneuvering system breaks down, which would be a bad thing.
Latest hypothesis is that the separating first stage collided with the second stage knocking it off course.
An article behind a pay wall says sometime in January.
Anyone seen a report from the astronauts currently on ISS? This is surely a blow to their morale, even though they have the training for dealing with situations like this, knowing you are stuck there has to be worrisome.
Good thing Walowitz is not onboard 
They aren’t stuck, there is another Soyuz docked at the station. The problem is that the station has been manned for 18 years, and if they have to leave without replacements, the station will be abandoned until something an safely fly again.
Ok, you could argue that Mike Melvill is not quite “American”, as he was born outside the US even though he is now a US citizen, but you have a lot of nerve claiming that William Brian Binnie of West Lafayette, Indiana, is not a US citizen!
or…
Did you choose to ignore the accomplishments of these pilots, and the US company Scaled Composites, with their flights in oct 2004?
Word is the recovered rocketcam footage shows the booster being abnormal. The current WAG is the booster did not separate correctly, and crunched the tail of stage 2 as it pivoted. Oppsie.
With the escape tower jettisoned, how did the Soyuz get away from the last stage?
I don’t understand pulling 8 Gs. You are going upwards; soon you will be going downwards, and pulling 0 Gs for a moment. It seems like that would be a great time to open the parachutes.
You’d need to consider how parachutes work, for a start.
There is a secondary set of separation motors installed on the vehicle shroud itself. From the pad and during strap-on burn they work as a “second stage” to the launch escape tower, afterwards until fairing jettison they become the means to separate (by then you have enough altitude and initial speed that you don’t need the full power of the tower to get away to a safe distance)
The 8Gs comes from the rather steep, ballistic reentry profile.
Falling from an altitude of ~ 120km, with very little horizontal velocity, means you slam into the denser layers of the atmosphere with a lot more vertical speed than you would prefer.
For comparison: The Blue Origins’ New Shepard suborbital hopper just barely passes 100km altitude, straight up.
Going up, it peaks at 2.3g
Coming down, it touches 4.6g during atmospheric entry.
There isn’t enough air at that altitude for the parachute to do anything. You’d still slam into denser atmosphere at hypersonic speed. If your parachute is open at that point, it will be instantly shredded.
The air resistance of the capsule itself is enough to slow down to subsonic speeds (this is where you pull the Gs). The parachute is only used for the last 10km or so of the trip, slowing down the capsule from hundreds of mph to tens of mph.
Thanks.