NASA Astronaut Nick Hague 'Rolls with Punches' After Harrowing Soyuz Launch Failure
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NASA Astronaut Nick Hague 'Rolls with Punches' After Harrowing Soyuz Launch Failure
NASA Astronaut Nick Hague 'Rolls with Punches' After Harrowing Soyuz Launch Failure
NASA Astronaut Nick Hague 'Rolls with Punches' After Harrowing Soyuz Launch Failure
On October 11, NASA astronaut Nick Hague was supposed to make the longest trip of his life until then, traveling to the International Space Station for a period of six months. Instead, he and his colleague returned abruptly to Earth after the rocket experienced a booster failure A couple of minutes at the launch.
Today, The Hague spoke to media and the public For the first time since the failed launch, sharing what it was like to be in the capsule and how he and his family are responding to the event.
"I imagined that my first trip to outer space would be memorable," Hague said in one of a series of interviews with selected reporters that were broadcast online. "I did not expect it to be so memorable."
To hear Haya say it, things quickly got complicated inside the Soyuz capsule that took him and the Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin. "It went from normal to something that was very bad," Hague said. "It was a bumpy ride on the roller coaster, many side-by-side moves, that were thrown around, but it was finished almost before it started."
This is the shimmy that the crew experienced during the booster separation, transmitted by NASA and reproduced here. So happy you are safe! More on the launch failure: https://t.co/Ws3Qu97BWKpic.twitter.com/JH2N3ROMqA
The crew capsule was automatically separated from the failed impeller and took the astronauts to a safe place, which is where all that movement comes from side to side. "Once I saw that light we had an emergency with the reinforcement, at that time we were not going to reach orbit that day, so the mission changed to go back down to the ground with the greatest possible security." "Hague said.
And, fortunately, I was well placed to do just that. "This is not the first flight emergency I was part of," Hague said, noting his time with the United States Air Force as a test pilot and in combat.
In addition, his training as an astronaut has prepared him for emergencies, he said. "I have spent most of the last two years in [Roscosmos headquarters at] Star City, Russia, within a descent module where all the failures imaginable have been thrown at us, "said Hague. Actually, we had executed some scenarios in which we had a reinforcement failure and [they tested] our response to that. "
What surprised him most was the physical experience itself. "Obviously, this is my first flight, so every feeling was new to me, those are the amazing things," he said. "Those are all the sensations that we do not simulate."
NASA astronaut Nick Hague inside a Soyuz simulator less than a month before the launch of his rocket failed.
Credit: Elizabeth Wissinger / NASA
And there were more sensations to come; he and Ovchinin needed to prepare their bodies for the approximately 6.7 g they took out during the re-entry. They also had to prepare for the physical shock of the parachutes that opened and caught the capsule in its descent.
In the midst of dealing with these feelings, Hague and Ovchinin also had to complete a to-do list. Hague described the verification of the orientation and response of the vehicle, making sure that the valves worked properly and communicating with the rescue teams.
Throughout the procedure, Hague and Ovchinin spoke in Russian, as they had been trained to do so. Once they knew they were safe, they celebrated. "We looked at each other, we had smiles from ear to ear," Hague said. "Hold out a hand, I give you my hand and then we start telling some jokes between us about how short our flight was."
But Hague said he knows that his safety and that of Ovchinin are not a matter of laughter. He expressed his deep gratitude to the huge team of engineers who designed and built the security systems on board the Soyuz.
"That's the system that saved our lives, and Alexey and I are standing up for that," Hague said. "It's on every rocket, and for manned launches on Soyuz, they have not had to use that system for 35 years, but it's always been there, it's always been ready, and we showed it last week."
Reactions to the disaster
As soon as Hague and Ovchinin landed, they took out the satellite phone from the ship and called the mission control and the rescue operation. Next, Ovchinin called his wife; Then, it was The Hague's turn to call his wife.
Hague and his wife, Cadie Hague, met during their careers in the Air Force, where Cadie Hague works for public affairs. Even when Nick Hague was still a test pilot there, he had a radio in his office that relayed status updates of all flights in the air. "She has practiced listening to that, hey, my flight is not going well and controlling emotions," he said.
However, there was a small problem with the safe landing call: Cadie Hague did not answer. "Now, she has a voice mail that she can keep as a memory for the rest of her life," said Nick Hague. And what did he say? "I said, 'I'm fine and it was a wild trip.'"
When the couple met in person, "She looked at me and said, 'Do not worry, you're going to get there,'" he added. (His youngest son was more pragmatic, said Nick Hague, he just asked his father when he would return to space).
Nick Hague has also been meeting with the astronaut corps in Houston. But even before the long trip back to the Johnson Space Center, he spoke with the astronauts he was supposed to join on the space station. "I'm lying in the hospital bed", just for observation, he is quick to notice - "and I get a call from [astronauts] Alex [Gerst] and serene [Auñón-Chancellor] on board [the space station], and they were giving me a hard time, saying that they were having dinner, that they had prepared me and that they were waiting for me, "Hague said.
Since NASA confirmed that Hague and Ovchinin landed safely, the first question we all thought was: if and when those astronauts will have another opportunity in the space station. Hague said that does not depend on him but that he feels great and already told NASA that it is ready to fly again every time the agency can program it. "I'm super grateful to be alive and kicking today and I'll have another chance in the future," Hague said.
He shrugged off any concerns about the safety of the rocket and the Soyuz capsule, and expressed full confidence in the capacity of the Russian space agency. Roscosmos, to find and address the cause of the launch failure.
"The Soyuz is a marvel of engineering," said Hague. "That's reliable, and I'm glad there are so many people who have invested so many years of their lives making the system as strong as it is."
While Hague is clearly upset that he did not get to the space station this time, he stressed that it is more than just himself. "We all realize that it is a very difficult business that we are part of, you will not always succeed, but you have to persevere," he said. "What we are trying to achieve with the human exploration of space, the things we are trying to discover, expand the limits of human understanding, that is what we are trying to do, and it's worth it."
That said, he achieved some fleeting moments of weightlessness, looking out the window of a spaceship while he was beyond the limits of gravity. "We reached the apex of our trajectory, I looked out the window and saw the curve of the Earth and the darkness of space, it was a bittersweet, fleeting moment, knowing that I got so close but was not" I'm not going to work that time ", said Hague.
"What can you do? Sometimes you do not get a vote, and this time we're going to give the punches, you're just trying to celebrate the little gifts you received, like taking the kids to school this morning."
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