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Manual descent training

The most challenging part of training for me were the Soyuz sims (simulations) when I would work with my crewmates to fly the spacecraft through various phases of the mission such as rendezvous and docking. It is relatively easy to fly the Soyuz spacecraft when all the automatic systems are operating properly. However, we cannot always rely upon automatic systems. Our instructors prepare us for bad days in orbit by continually introducing new contingency situations and system malfunctions into the sims. Only good operational skills and tight crew coordination will get us through these situations during the most dynamic phases of flight.

The Soyuz training that I enjoyed the most was manual descent. Under nominal end-of-mission situations, an automatic re-entry system will return the Soyuz vehicle and crew from space safely back to the ground. However, the crew must be familiar with the several backup modes that exist in instances when the automatic system fails. One of the backup re-entry modes is the crew themselves! For certain hardware and software malfunctions, the crew will be required to manually fly the Soyuz back to Earth through the atmosphere.

To do this, we use a hand controller that varies the aerodynamic lift on the capsule. Our objective is to manipulate the lift forces on the Soyuz descent module such that we will land as close as possible to the designated site where the recovery team will be waiting for us.

It is not difficult to land the vehicle accurately at the designated landing spot if I pay no attention to g-load. However, to simple-mindedly fly the vehicle to the landing point would likely mean that the crew would be subjected to very high g-loads.

On the other hand, manipulating the lift forces on the vehicle so that the crew is exposed only to low g-forces would mean that we land tens or hundreds of kilometres away from the waiting helicopters. Therefore, the trick of manual re-entry is to balance these two considerations (landing accuracy and g-force limits) and fly a re-entry profile that is as accurate as possible, but at the same time not too uncomfortable for the crew. It takes many hours of practice to get it right.