I know, Pavel.. I hugely enjoy jabbing you thru the bars of your commie brain cage. Beauty is, we both know exactly what the rules are... and it's fun.
Justa make yah feel better, we've had a fair number of very close calls in our program too... On August 29, 1965, Gemini 5 landed 130 kilometers short of its planned Pacific Ocean landing point due to a software error. The Earth's rotation rate had been programmed as one revolution per solar day instead of the correct value, one revolution per sidereal day.
The Gemini 8 crew narrowly averted disaster on March 17 1966 after a maneuvering thruster would not shut down and put their capsule into an uncontrolled spin.
Three of the five Lunar Landing Research and Training vehicles (LLRV & LLTV) were destroyed in crashes near Houston, Texas. LLRV No. 1 crashed on May 6, 1968 at Ellington AFB, Texas, Neil Armstrong was flying the craft at the time and had to eject. LLTV No. 1 crashed on December 8, 1968 at Ellington AFB, Texas causing MSC test pilot Joseph Algranti to eject safely. Another LLTV crashed at Ellington AFB, Texas on January 29, 1971. NASA test pilot Stuart Present ejected safely.
The rocket that launched Apollo 12 on November 14 1969 was struck by lightning shortly after lift-off. All on-board systems were temporarily disabled... imagine riding a dead rocket into space... they couldn't trigger the escape system even if they tried to. Dammo!
In the most celebrated "near miss", the Apollo 13 crew came home safely after an explosion on April 14, 1970 crippled their spacecraft en route to the moon. They survived the loss of most of their spacecraft systems by relying on the Lunar Module to provide life support and power for the trip home.
Apollo 13 also had a close call during launch that almost resulted in a launch abort. It was overshadowed by later events. The second stage center engine experienced violent pogo oscillations that luckily caused it to shut down early. The two ton engine, solidly bolted to its massive thrust frame, was bouncing up and down at 68 g. This was flexing the frame 3 inches (76 mm) at 16 Hz. After three seconds of these pogo oscillations the engine's "low chamber pressure" switch was tripped. The switch had not been designed to trip in this manner, but luckily it did. This led to the engines automatic shutdown. If the pogo had continued, it could have torn the Saturn V apart... which explains in small part the current huge concern over the low fuel cutoff sensor difficulty the current shuttle is working through.
On January 23, 1971, Gene Cernan was flying a helicopter as part of his Lunar Module training as Backup Commander for Apollo 14. The helicopter crashed into the Banana River at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Cernan nearly drowned because he was not wearing a life vest and received some second-degree burns on his face and singed hair. According to official reports at the time, the crash was the result of mechanical failure. Later accounts, written by Cernan himself in an autobiography admit he was flying too low and showing off for nearby boaters. The helicopter dipped a skid into the water and crashed. James McDivitt, an Apollo Manager at the time, demanded that Cernan be removed from flight status and not be given Command of Apollo 17. He was defended by Deke Slayton and given the Apollo 17 command. James McDivitt resigned as an Apollo Manager shortly after the Apollo 16 mission.
During final descent and parachute deployment for the ASTP Command Module on July 24, 1975, the U.S. crew were exposed to 300 µL/L of toxic nitrogen tetroxide gas (RCS fuel) venting from the spacecraft and re-entering a cabin air intake. A switch was left in the wrong position. 400 µL/L is fatal. Vance Brand became unconscious. The crew members suffered from burning sensations of their eyes, faces, noses, throats and lungs. Thomas Stafford quickly broke out emergency oxygen masks and put one on Brand and gave one to Deke Slayton. The crew were exposed to the toxic gas from 24,000 ft (7.3 km) down to landing. About an hour after landing the crew developed chemical induced pneumonia and their lungs had edema. They experienced shortness of breath and were hospitalized in Hawaii. The crew spent two weeks in the hospital. By July 30, their chest x-rays appeared to return to normal. Deke later died of lung cancer.
Death-wize, 4% astronaut fatalities vs 2% cosmonaut fatalities... you lose more on the ground, we lose more on the vehicles.
Biggest diffrence I see between the two programs has always been the depth of concern shown for the saftey of the folks involved... as Skuzzy pointed out, had our program been plauged with the death toll yours experienced early on, we'd have shut the program down... and every time we did lose lives, the program stopped in it's tracks and went back to hunt the cause, and spent whatever it took to fix it. Sadly, thank's to our 'bus' spacecraft, when we mess up, the death toll is very large...
Our best hope for success in space remains in large part a joint program where commonality of engineering and knowlege is freely exchanged between the space-faring nations. We don't need another Chaffe, White & Grissom disaster.. one that would never have happened had we known the details of the Bandarenko tragedy.
Cheers, you commie martyr dirtbag!
