August 02, 2020

Oh They Made It!

I was inordinately worried about this. This is the first time the U.S. has sent AND RETURNED astronauts on its own since the Space Shuttle was retired in the wake of the Columbia disaster, and, well, it's 2020, so having watched the destruction of Columbia and Challenger live I was on pins and needles. 



And as I type this it's been 44 minutes they are concerned because there seems to be a fuel leak and they still can't open the door. That's new. Is it hydrazine?...I hope not. 
UPDATE: No it's NTO. Which explains why they haven't gotten the deckhands the hell out of there. 

UPDATE2: All good, it took an hour but they are both out of the capsule and fine. 


Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:31 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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1 They were quite clear that there wasn't any indication of a leak, it was just residual vapor left over from thruster firings.  But NTO and MMH are nasty enough stuff that even at 3 parts per million in that hatchway, they weren't about to open up until they'd cycled enough fresh air through to purge things.  This is pretty standard, the space shuttle astronauts spent a good time inside waiting for things to clear up even though all the nasty stuff was nearly a hundred feet back from them at the other end of the craft from the hatch.

Posted by: David at Sun Aug 2 15:19:55 2020 (L65WS)

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What colour is a green orange?




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