• 30/01/2008 - Space officials: faulty cable caused last October's rough Soyuz landing

 

MOSCOW - A faulty control cable caused last October's rough landing by a Soyuz space capsule.

The glitch subjected two Russian cosmonauts and Malaysia's first space traveller to much higher than normal G-forces on their return to Earth from the International Space Station.

RIA-Novosti new agency quotes a top official of the RKK Energiya company, Russia's top spacecraft manufacturer, as saying steps have since been taken to correct the problem.

Because of the glitch, cosmonauts, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov of Russia, and Malaysian Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, returned to Earth on a steeper-than-usual descent trajectory.

That subjected them to 8.5 times the force of gravity instead of the usual four times.

Sheikh Muszaphar later described the sensation as feeling like an elephant was pressing on his chest.

Medical tests showed the three cosmonauts were not injured during the descent, but it took them slightly longer than usual to adapt to Earth conditions.