Technocrat

Soyuz makes another ballistic reentry

Michael Smith
Sat Apr 19 01:24:02 -0700 2008
Space+Flight
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Space station expedition 16 came to a grinding 10G halt a few hours ago when their Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft used a ballistic trajectory for aerobraking. Ideally reentering spacecraft need to generate a small amount of lift to keep them at high altitudes for as long as possible.

Previous incidents like this one have been caused by failure of onboard equipment. The ballistic mode is really a degraded mode. It can't be much fun to spend a few minutes at 10G following six months in microgravity.

Soyuz makes another ballistic reentry
Aero
Sat Apr 19 17:25:33 -0700 2008
 manage

At least they had a shotgun to keep the bears away until they were rescued.
Soyuz makes another ballistic reentry
Michael Smith
Sun Apr 20 01:51:42 -0700 2008
 manage

And now a little bit of blameshifting from Federal Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov:

"You know in Russia, there are certain bad omens about this sort of thing, but thank God that everything worked out successfully," he said. "Of course in the future, we will work somehow to ensure that the number of women will not surpass" the number of men.
Soyuz makes another ballistic reentry
Aero
Sun Apr 20 03:41:00 -0700 2008
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You know, I was tempted to make a woman driver joke, but thankfully Anatoly did it for me.

 
Soyuz makes another ballistic reentry
John Lee
Thu Jul 03 23:50:35 -0700 2008
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Mike, you're not the one who used to live in Kenya and Australia, are you?

John Lee

Soyuz makes another ballistic reentry
Michael Smith
Fri Jul 04 00:16:25 -0700 2008
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No I have never been to Kenya. I was born in Melbourne and I have lived here most of my life. I was once a member of the Michael Smith webring though.

There is also a Michael Smith who was on the freebsd project for a while. I have been confused with him because I am a fairly heavy user of netbsd.

In my last job the other Michael Smith kept applying for management stream courses. I must have been first in the HR files because the paperwork always came to me and I got sent to learn about this stuff I had no interest in. Eventually HR sent both of us to the same course and we started forwarding our misdirected emails to each other.

Soyuz makes another ballistic reentry
John Lee
Fri Jul 04 19:50:05 -0700 2008
 manage

Thanks for responding, Mike. The one I knew was an old friend in Nairobi and Adelaide. I believe he studied ballistics for a doctorate in Cambridge UK - hence your popping up on a Google search for Mike Smith ballistics. Sorry to trouble you. Do let me know if you come across anyone who fits. Best regards, John Lee. jalee@eim.ae

 

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