Malaysian Angkasawan Dr Sheikh Muszaphar
Shukor landing on earth is being described as a “soft landing” but
he is still going to feel quite a hard jolt upon
impact.
Retired Nasa astronaut Robert “Hoot” Gibson said although the
term “soft landing” was being used, it was not going to be really
soft.
He said a parachute would slow the spacecraft down, and a
breaking rocket would fire just before touching the ground, there
would still be a jolt when it touched the ground.
“It is described as a ‘soft landing’, but it’s a fairly hard
‘soft landing’,” he said in an interview.
The spacecraft would be descending at a speed of over 200m per
second and parachutes would slow it down to about 20mps, he said.
Breaking rockets would slow it down further to 2 to 3mps just
before it hits the ground.
The Soyuz spacecraft carrying Dr Sheikh Muszaphar will be
undocking from the International Space Station at 3.15pm Malaysian
time.
At 3.21pm, the Soyuz jets will be fired to begin departure from
the ISS, and at about 5.50pm, Soyuz computers will initiate
re-entry manoeuvres.
At 6.20pm, the spacecraft will break into three modules –
orbital, instrumentation, and descent. The crew will be in the
descent module.
At 6.23pm, the crew will feel the effects of gravity and
parachutes will open.
They are scheduled to land at 6.30pm in the swampy area of
Arkylk in Kazakhstan. Helicopters and amphibious vehicles will pick
them up.
“When Dr Sheikh comes back, he will have had an experience of a
lifetime. He’s going to say, ‘I want to go again’.
“And so we’re going to have to find another trip for him
because, believe me, he’s not going to be satisfied with just going
just once,” Gibson said.
