Quote:
Originally Posted by Shiba-Kun  I think that she was worried because they were: doing their re-entry at a steeper angle of decent then prescribed, at a faster velocity, were off course, and their parachute ended up catching on fire.
I'd be pretty scared too. |
According to what I read on an AIAA news blurb this morning, the crew decided to alter their course at the last minute w/o consulting with MC (resulting in a long delay before they got picked up), and the ballistic entry was steep causing them to pull 8gs. While they certainly should be prepared for fire outside the windows as their ablative shields burn off, 8gs is enough to make most people crap themselves.
As far as the chute burning or not, I'm not sure I buy that, chutes typically don't deploy until you're well below the point where they'd burn. Also, even if the chute did ignite, I don't think you can see it from inside the capsule.
Soyouz capsules aren't pretty, but they work and are reasonably cheap. Why do you think the new CEV system is based around a capsule system? It's fugly and inelegant, but functional and relatively light.