Work got rather hectic in an unexpected way yesterday after the launch of a Russian Soyuz carrying two crewmembers to the space station aborted about 2 minutes into what is supposed to be an 8.5-minute ride to orbit. There was a to-be-determined issue with the Soyuz rocket and as a result, the Soyuz spacecraft on top (yes, both are named Soyuz which isn’t confusing at all) automatically switched to abort mode. Based on where they were in the rocket’s flight profile, the spacecraft fired its thrusters briefly to carry it away from the rocket, and then landed back on Earth a few hundred miles from the launch site. Russian search-and-rescue forces — who are always prepositioned and ready to support something like this, even though it’s very rarely needed — were there in a heartbeat, and the crew is ok.
The photo above was taken right after the problem, which occurred around the time four small boosters usually finish firing and separate from the main rocket.
The fact that a launch abort was necessary is terrifying. This is only the third time the Soyuz has had a launch abort in nearly 50 years of flying, and the first two times were more than three decades ago.
The fact that the crew survived and are in good shape is a huge relief, and a testament to the quality of the design of both the spacecraft and the abort system. The Russian space program gets a lot of crap these days, and some of it is probably deserved (same with NASA), but the response yesterday to what could have very easily been a fatal incident is absolutely incredible.
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In lighter news, last weekend Emma learned to ride her bike without training wheels! It started almost two weeks ago when she and Charlotte took their bikes down the street to ride around with our neighbors on National Night Out. The boy who lives behind us — who is also in Emma’s 1st grade class — noticed her training wheels and told her that he doesn’t use them anymore.
Well, peer pressure works, right? Emma asked if we could take them off her bike and I figured she had the balance to be able to do it after some practice, so I agreed. We took them off on Saturday and she practiced scooting around our back patio and sidewalk, basically using it as a balance bike. She was working really hard and I was so proud of how diligently she stuck to it!
I decided we needed a larger area, so on Sunday we walked over to the tennis courts in the park…where she IMMEDIATELY began riding around on her own. I was stunned, and she was thrilled! I think she’s pretty much outgrown her current bike — my parents got it for her almost 2 years ago, and she’s grown several inches since then. I think it’s time for a new bike to celebrate!
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Last Thursday night, Jose and I both realized that the first game of the Astros-Indians ALDS series the next day was at 1:00 in the afternoon, and that there were tickets available on StubHub for fairly reasonable prices. So we took advantage of the fact that the girls would be at school and daycare and went to the ballpark! The Astros won (and went on to sweep the Indians, and will face the Red Sox in the ALCS starting tomorrow), and even though we had to leave in the 7th inning to make sure we made it to daycare pickup on time, it was worth it. I’ve been to many postseason games over the year, but this was Jose’s first! Postseason games are the best, especially when your team wins!
