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A Scarce during Soyuz Re-entry

Russia’s Mission Control endured a brief but private scare during this week’s return of a Soyuz spacecraft from the international space station with three riders aboard. As the Soyuz descent module headed back to Earth, instruments indicated that air was leaking out — the same kind of failure that killed three cosmonauts in June 1971 on their way home from the world’s first space station, Russia’s Salyut 1.

It remained to be seen whether the air leak was real, or whether there was only a failure in the pressure sensor. A real pressure leak, apparently the first in more than 30 years, would raise questions about the airtightness of the Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft that was launched Oct. 1 and is currently docked to the station as a landing vehicle for the space station’s current crew members, William McArthur and Valery Tokarev.

posted by: kyawoo at 11:13 | link | comments |
manned missions

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