On Sept. 26, 1983, a Russian Soyuz rocket exploded on the launchpad. Two cosmonauts Vladimir Titov and Gennady Strekalov were inside their Soyuz T-10-1 spacecraft atop the rocket, and they barely made it out alive.
Titov and Strekalov’s mission was intended to launch the cosmonauts from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the Salyut 7 space station. But about 90 seconds before their rocket was supposed to launch, a fire erupted on the launchpad.
Thankfully, the emergency abort escape system ejected their Soyuz space capsule from the top of the rocket just two seconds before the fire caused the explosion. it was the first time the launch escape system was used, but unfortunately it wouldn’t be the last.
Russian officials watch the harrowing Soyuz T-10-1 launch abort of cosmonauts Vladimir Titov and Gennady Strekalov on Sept. 26, 1983. (Image credit: NASA via YouTube)Why it mattered
The harrowing launch abort of the Soyuz T-10-1 spacecraft (also known as Soyuz T-10A) proved the effectiveness of a launch escape system that no one ever wanted to see actually used. It was the first crewed launch pad abort.
Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft, when stacked atop their Soyuz rockets, have a launch escape tower equipped with its own rocket motors that is designed to rip a Soyuz capsule free of its rocket so the spacecraft can parachute to safety in the event of a launch emergency. Similar launch abort systems were used on NASA’s Mercury Gemini and Apollo missions, as well as on the agency’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. (SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Blue Origin’s New Shepard use a “pusher” escape sytem designed to blast a capsule free, rather than pulling up and away.)
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The Soyuz rocket failure was apparently caused by a fire at the base of the booster about a minute before liftoff, according to the Encyclopedia Astronautica. And while the escape system worked as planned, it wasn’t a comfortable ride. The launch abort system ripped the Soyuz capsule free of its rocket with so much force, Titov and Strekalov were subjected to 20Gs (or 20 times the force of gravity) as the capsule streaked away from the exploding rocket.
While Soyuz T-10-1 was the first Soyuz launch abort, it wasn’t the last.
On Oct. 11, 2018, a Soyuz rocket carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Rogozin on a mission to the International Space Station failed during flight (so during ascent, not on the pad), triggering the launch abort system. As with Soyuz T-10-1, the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft did land safely, with the descent module jettisoning its orbital and service modules and deploying parachutes. A booster separation issue caused the abort.
“I imagined that my first trip to outer space was going to be a memorable one,” Hague said in interviews after the abort. “I didn’t expect it to be quite this memorable.”
Hague and Rogozin experienced about 6.7 Gs during the launch abort, but where otherwise safe. Hague later returned to spaceflight in February 2019, safely launching on another Soyuz rocket to the the ISS.
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