Korolyov, we have a problem as space trips return to basics

It APPEARS to be a peaceful return from space. Three men floating back to Earth through clear blue skies, their Russian space capsule suspended from a parachute, in an image redolent of the earliest days of space travel.

But their return to terra firma rattled the nerves of ground control when communication with the Soyuz capsule’s crew was lost just moments after they re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere.

Nasa astronaut Ron Garan and Russian cosmonauts Andrei Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyayev were returning from a long stay in the International Space Station when they lost contact with Mission Control in Korolyov, outside Moscow.

Repeated calls to the Soyuz TMA-21 capsule went unanswered for several minutes.

However, a beeping signal indicated the module separation process had been completed and then an aircraft awaiting the craft’s arrival reported seeing the parachute deploy. Shortly afterwards, it was confirmed all was well.

Despite the technical glitch, the crew landed smoothly on the Russian steppe after 164 days in space.

After being extracted from the capsule, the men were carried in their reclining seats to a nearby medical tent, where they changed out of their re-entry suits ahead of their return home.

Crews flying back to Earth by Space Shuttle have become a familiar sight. But with the end of that programme earlier this year, the sight of astronauts parachuting back to terra firma will become more common.

Russian missions have never strayed from this method.

Scottish rocket consultant Rick Newlands said parachutes were relied upon primarily because they were cheap. “The problem is they don’t always open and there was an example, shortly after Gagarin’s first manned spaceflight, of one capsule crashing when the parachute failed to deploy, killing the cosmonaut,” he said.

“With the Space Shuttle, the wings were already there and, heat shields notwithstanding, they’ll be there at the end.

“But with a parachute, you’re not sure who’s packed it, whether it was packed properly or if it will open properly. That’s why they usually fire out two or three of them, just in case.”

The craft carrying the crew was dubbed the Gagarin, as it began its trip to the space station from the Baikonur spaceport in southern Kazakhstan on 4 April, just eight days shy of the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s maiden voyage into space.

The landing coincided with the opening of a photographic exhibition in Edinburgh devoted to the cosmonaut’s life.

Drawing on the archives of the RIA Novosti news agency, and featuring many never-before-seen images, the exhibition traces the story of Gagarin’s early life, his historic space flight and the global fame that followed him until his untimely death at the age of 34 in 1968 while working as a test pilot. The exhibition, at the Scotland-Russia Institute in South College Street, runs until 28 October.